Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1901 — Some Enemies of Mice. [ARTICLE]

Some Enemies of Mice.

Next to the cat, perhaps the owls and hawks account for the greatest number, and foxes, coons, weasels, skunks and crows, all look upon mice as a delicacy. But the troubles of the rodents do not end here. Scores of ingenious traps have been invented for their destruction, and they are also poisoned in great numbers every year. When it becomes necessary to destroy mice perhaps the most humane way to do it is with the spring trap, which kills them instantly by a blow. Poisoning is very cruel, and this method is also a menace to human life, not only because it is always dangerous to have poison where there is a possibility of children getting hold of it, but because the mice are apt to di§ in the walls, floors and other inaccessible places. Drowning is also cruel, though I once knew two dear elderly ladies, who were so kind-hearted that they used to drown their mice in warm water, “because,” they said, “it is so cruel to drown the poor things in cold water, in the middle of winter, too.”— New York Sun.