Not Fun

I was flipping my giant compost pile into a newly vacant bin, trying to air things out and activate the pile again.  Suddenly I heard a faint squeeking noise and as I dug around with the pitch fork I exposed a baby rat, eyes not yet open and crying from hainvg his warm nest disturbed.  Shit.  A baby rat, really?  I was thankful I hadn't impaled the little guy with my pitch fork at least.

I talk a lot about killing insects and my hate for various bugs but when it comes down to it I'm a hopeless animal lover.  All animals, even pests.  This is not to say I don't do what's necessary when dealing with pests; I'm a huge proponent of the classic Victor brand rat trap, it does what it supposed to and is far more humane than poison or sticky traps.  Still, this was a baby, just barely with it's new hair and crying for mom.  But I had to take care of it and I chose drowning as my method.  I've done research in the past and found that several sources claim drowning as the most humane, non-chemical, non-violent (e.g. decapitation) method to terminate an animal.  With a heavy heart I collected the doomed critter and proceeded into the house to flush him down the toilet.

Before my day was over I would need to do this two more times, each no less difficult or sad.