Richard Collins: Why I am reluctant to set traps for mice in my house

Mice are not welcome in the house but, hunted by foxes stoats and birds of prey, the house mouse is a ‘keystone’ wildlife species

We don’t know the extent of the physical pain they endure, but rodents seem to experience mental anguish.

There is mayhem in our house night after night; Pussy, the cat, goes on mouse-hunting safaris. Most of her victims are caught outside. She brings them in, alive, through the cat flap. 

Six mice were killed in the last week alone. Each unfortunate rodent is tormented and released, only to be pounced on repeatedly. Then it is taken to Pussy’s favourite execution site; the landing on the stairs. There the condemned prisoner is put through the feline equivalent of hanging, drawing and quartering. Entrails, headless torsos, and mouse tails with bits of rump still attached to them turn up in unlikely corners.