Despite a seemingly eco-friendly appearance, the University of Kent supports a vile rodent control policy that is inhumane to the animal, damages the environment and is not even backed by science.

In my house on campus, we had a mouse that raided a cupboard. Campus security was informed and placed a disgusting bait station, no checking the property for entry points, no capture and release measures. These stations poison the rodent, which wanders off to die slowly, risking a rotting corpse to be stuck behind the cupboards or having another animal (or one of the many pets that roam the campus) eat it and die. Numerous papers show poison and release methods actually increase mice populations, so not only are they unethical, they are ineffective.

When contacted about my unwillingness to use the trap I was told I personally had to set it, despite informing them of my religious implications, directly violating my rights.

Humane, capture and release traps are cheap and equally effective at making contact with the rodent, without the long term suffering and widespread implications to the campus ecosystem, an area this university claims to be a top priority.

So, please help me tell the University of Kent that their policy is unacceptable and that a live capture programme should be in place, along with measures to stop more rodents from entering the properties.