Pig_mum
New Born Pup
On Sunday morning (20th December) my mum became aware of a rat stumbling around in our garden and looking very disorientated, before shortly curling up and dying by our shed. We suspect it had been poisoned.
To give you a bit of context, we live in a semi-detached house and our previous attached neighbours installed decking in their garden. Over the past few years we've seen a couple of rats in our garden on the rare occasion, which we assumed had something to do with the decking (which obviously provides great shelter for them). The last time we saw a rat was in the summer (I think it was eating fruits that had fallen from our other neighbour's plum tree). We also live in a semi-rural area with fields at the back of our housing development, so we're pretty sure the rat(s) come from there rather than the sewers.
Anyway, we suspect that our new attached neighbour baited this rat and it unfortunately died in our garden. Thankfully, our two guinea pigs live in an indoor c&c cage and aren't going outside in their run at the moment because of the winter weather. However, I am really worried about putting them outside in the garden once spring arrives with the possibility that there could be traces of poison. My mum also said the rat was walking around on our grass before it died.
I know at this point you're probably thinking 'why don't you just ask your neighbour if they've put out poison?'. Unfortunately, we've experienced some pretty unpleasant neighbour issues over the years and they've caused me to suffer with high anxiety when it comes to potential confrontation. Although we've not had any altercations with these particular neighbours, we really can't stand them (this summer we've had to endure banging doors and screaming kids during lockdown and general inconsiderate/passive aggressive behaviour) and the atmosphere between us hasn't been great. My parents aren't particularly helpful in this situation as they are both reluctant to approach our neighbours about it (my mum worries that she'll loose her temper and my dad just seems to want to avoid confrontation altogether).
My parents said that they are going to pressure wash the patio and fences, although I'm not really sure what difference that is going to make. If there are any traces of poison, will they wash away or dissolve? Is there any way I can get the soil/grass tested to make sure it's safe for our guinea pigs to go out on?
Whilst I'm fully aware that it's legal to buy and lay poison for vermin, I can't help but think it's morally wrong to not at least have the decency to inform your surrounding neighbours of your intentions – especially when so many of us have pets and we all know that poison doesn't discriminate. As animal lovers, we obviously don't like to see any creature suffer – even if it is 'vermin'. Surely there has to be other, more humane methods you can try first before laying out poison? As I mentioned, we are assuming rat was poisoned (because it was in such a bad way and didn't appear to be injured) but we can't be certain.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
To give you a bit of context, we live in a semi-detached house and our previous attached neighbours installed decking in their garden. Over the past few years we've seen a couple of rats in our garden on the rare occasion, which we assumed had something to do with the decking (which obviously provides great shelter for them). The last time we saw a rat was in the summer (I think it was eating fruits that had fallen from our other neighbour's plum tree). We also live in a semi-rural area with fields at the back of our housing development, so we're pretty sure the rat(s) come from there rather than the sewers.
Anyway, we suspect that our new attached neighbour baited this rat and it unfortunately died in our garden. Thankfully, our two guinea pigs live in an indoor c&c cage and aren't going outside in their run at the moment because of the winter weather. However, I am really worried about putting them outside in the garden once spring arrives with the possibility that there could be traces of poison. My mum also said the rat was walking around on our grass before it died.
I know at this point you're probably thinking 'why don't you just ask your neighbour if they've put out poison?'. Unfortunately, we've experienced some pretty unpleasant neighbour issues over the years and they've caused me to suffer with high anxiety when it comes to potential confrontation. Although we've not had any altercations with these particular neighbours, we really can't stand them (this summer we've had to endure banging doors and screaming kids during lockdown and general inconsiderate/passive aggressive behaviour) and the atmosphere between us hasn't been great. My parents aren't particularly helpful in this situation as they are both reluctant to approach our neighbours about it (my mum worries that she'll loose her temper and my dad just seems to want to avoid confrontation altogether).
My parents said that they are going to pressure wash the patio and fences, although I'm not really sure what difference that is going to make. If there are any traces of poison, will they wash away or dissolve? Is there any way I can get the soil/grass tested to make sure it's safe for our guinea pigs to go out on?
Whilst I'm fully aware that it's legal to buy and lay poison for vermin, I can't help but think it's morally wrong to not at least have the decency to inform your surrounding neighbours of your intentions – especially when so many of us have pets and we all know that poison doesn't discriminate. As animal lovers, we obviously don't like to see any creature suffer – even if it is 'vermin'. Surely there has to be other, more humane methods you can try first before laying out poison? As I mentioned, we are assuming rat was poisoned (because it was in such a bad way and didn't appear to be injured) but we can't be certain.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
