“My story is about how the necessary dispatching of animals affects me.
I once had to kill a mouse I found during a routine visit when it was still alive in a trap. It looked at me before I had to dispatch it humanely, it was cute and it has affected me.
I have been affected by a fatigue of killing living things, particularly with big pigeon culls. Going into a factory tower, wearing a respirator, and climbing twelve flights of stairs in intense heat shooting pigeons. I question whether there are other methods of pest control that are less distressing, particularly when other countries have products on the market that the UK does not.
I have been disturbed having to humanely dispatch rats. When you find a rat still alive in a trap and wonder how long they had been like that before I found them suffering.
With experience I have learnt to shut this out. It makes me think that the industry needs to improve trapping products to prevent the need for human dispatching, which can affect the mental health of a pest controller.”