Is the Smart Trap humane?
We work hard to ensure our traps are as humane as they possibly can be, so we’ve gone through various testing and accreditation in New Zealand to ensure they’re meeting the highest possible standards.
To be considered humane as per the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) standard, our trap was evaluated for its ability to render rats irreversibly unconscious within three minutes.
In the testing completed, all ten ship rats trapped were rendered irreversibly unconscious within three minutes with a mean time of 22.3 seconds (the range was 15 – 29 seconds). This time included the lag between the trap triggering, and the ability of the assessor to travel to the trap and conduct the palpebral reflex test. In all cases eye reflex was absent on the first test conducted on the initial approach. The weight of the tested ship rats ranged from 110 - 180 grams which correlates to an age of 3-6 years old.
We haven’t yet been accredited internationally, as we have only recently launched in Europe but it’s something we'll look into in the coming years. We’re confident that the current design of our trap design ensures the most humane kill possible.