I caught a mouse with a live trap and was letting the mouse go near a walking trail in the desert

[Quixote1818]

This elderly lady was looking at the contraption wondering what it was so I told her I had let a mouse go. The stupid lady frowned and said pretty loudly "You should have killed it!"

I wish I had told her to "Fuck off!"

[TreasonousBastard]

1. "Don't tell me what I should do...

All life is sacred to me.

Even yours"

[Big Blue Marble]

2. Thank you for your compassion.

You did the right thing to allow the mouse freedom. and to repress your
feelings with woman who was not likely to change her mind.

[Ohiogal]

3. We keep A Havahart mouse trap in the crawl space under part of my house

My husband catches them and always takes them “for a ride” .... about half a mile down the road, and let’s them out in a wooded area. We’ve been doing this for years.

That lady should just mind her own business!

[Kali]

4. she was right

trap and release is just a fool-yourself feel good action, either passing your pest problem onto someone else or causing the animal's inevitable death anyway in a strange territory. it really is more effective and humane to use a snap trap and kill mice quickly.

[mopinko]

10. and carry diseases too.

[hlthe2b]

5. I'd have asked her if I should leave her to be runover if she should collapse while crossing a road.

Good on you for live catch and release.

[cwydro]

16. You're comparing an elderly woman to a mouse in this horrid scenario?

Whoa.

And please know that “live catch and release” of a rodent simply condemns it to another death.

Being set loose in a place it completely doesn’t know will terrify the wee creature. But only for the few minutes before a predator kills it.

[Cartoonist]

6. Reminds me of a video

A guy was releasing a lizard into the wild. Before the little guy could make it to cover, a hawk swooped down and carried him away.

[Quixote1818]

9. That would be fine as it would not go to waste but feed another creature nt

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. "I've heard your adult children say the same thing about you."

[customerserviceguy]

8. Hey

an eagle's gotta eat, too.

[blur256]

11. We keep the rodents we have caught.

Two mice and one rat now. We love them and they make great pets. No diseases. But we also live in connecticut where there isn't hanta and such. But still, love them and they love us for rescuing them.

[LeftInTX]

12. They're invasive species (originally from Asia)

Unless it's a native rodent

If it's a real mouse they recommend killing them.

Don't get me started on rats. Rats are the bain of my existance. Huge suckers live in my attic and they fall between the walls and die and stink like heck

[cwydro]

13. It won't last a day being set loose somewhere it doesn't know.

Snakes, raptors, and a thousand other predators will have killed your “rescued” mouse pretty damn quickly.

And it will have been terrified until its death, completely lost and bewildered. That may have been what the elderly lady was thinking.

Sorry, but that’s no favor for the animal.

[LisaL]

14. Snakes gotta eat too.

[cwydro]

15. Lol, yes indeed.

Plenty of snakes on my property. Live and let live. The only one I ever killed was trying to kill one of my ducks. Unbelievably, we got him unwound from the duck. The duck lived. Sadly, he didn’t.

Oddly, I had a mouse problem for awhile. Then after rescuing two terrier mixes, I’ve not seen a mouse since.`

I’ve always been comfortable with the snakes. Mostly kings and racers. Only once have I seen a copperhead. We both kept a distance from one another.