[du tan]

I can see what you say about pigeons, although they would be comparitively easier to catch humanely and throw out of my loft, so its a bad analogy.

Balancing the amount of diseases they carry, and discomfort I suffered with them keeping me awake at night, my threshold for tolerating this was very low -I will add here, I have been brought up with pets, and would consider myself an animal lover.

However, rats are incredibly clever (as well as dirty, noisy disease-ridden etc) so humane traps was not something I was prepared to go through with.

I have blocked up the holes to next doors loft with wire wool (which they dont eat through) -and between that and using one of those electronic pulses, the further traps I have, have not gone off and there's been no further noises.

Prevention is better than cure, certainly, but i dont think many of the general population would have much sympathy with your argument.