This is very much a personal issue, so I will say where I am coming from. Man has worked with nature for millenia and needed to kill animals for their meat, skins, and other by-products in order to survive - as we still do today, though it is done far more humanely than then. We also have the need to protect our crops from any predator whether it be animal, insect, or whatever, so we can grow and harvest them for the table either because we want to grow our own for the sheer pleasure, taste, and also to know there have been no "chemicals" involved, or we are just trying to supplement the family funds - or both. If it means squashing insects, putting some sort of slug/snail bait down, shooting magpies to stop them pecking out the eyes from new-born lambs, or using rodent poison, it's all the same thing. As long as they have a quick and humane death, that's all I wish for. We used to have sheep because my OH was a butcher, and we used to send one or two home-raised lambs to slaughter but they were sent to a good place where we knew they would be treat properly. My OH also went on a Deer Management course where I learnt the reason for culling females and their fauns in late autumn - it was because they probably wouldn't survive the winter, so it saved them so much suffering. What I am trying to say is that, when you are doing your best to provide for your family, sentiment can get in the way. Like with rats, ok - they don't bother me as animals, have held them in the past, but they can carry disease (Lyme's) amongst other things, so are best removed a.s.a.p.
