Seriously.... it's best if you just kill it. They're like mice in that they can find their way back within a large radius (approx 15 miles if I remember rightly.) If you use kill traps though be careful, they're nasty things.

Effective ways to kill it would be braining it, severing it's spine with a decent (widish) blade or drowning it (though the latter is kinda cruel.) Just bear in mind they can bite nasty, move fast and are very aggressive when threatened.

If you're in the UK you might want to check out one of these: http://www.primrose.co.uk/advanced-rat-and-mouse-repeller-whole-house-p-36.html if you're in another country I'm sure they've available and they used to be cheaper on ebay. I live out in the country and used to get a lot of mice (no rats luckily) and haven't had one since getting one of those. Doesn't work well on spiders though.

When I read the topic title, the first thing I thought of was the Warhammer game "Shadow of the Horned Rat"

is that a bad thing?

i'm appalled at the apparent ease which some of you would kill a trapped animal with.

It certainly wasn't easy for me as I said, it was horrific and I still feel terrible about it. The problem with the kind of trap I used its that it left them covered in this nasty glue stuff, stuck to this fake pizza thing. The hammer was terrible, but leaving them stuck to that thing to starve to death would have been far worse.

Fair enough. Thanks for making my education :).

Well, I doubt life on earth is entirely dependent on any single specie, but I see your point.

They could certainly shake the existing eco-system in a major way and cause a massive wave of extinctions.

Anyone who is a meat eater and condemns the killing of animals for practical reasons is being hypocritical

So, if push comes to shove, I can understand the killing, but at least do it quickly and mercifully.

If it was me however, I'd probably bring it to a park somewhere.

I just don't have the stomach for it and would probably become vegetarian if I had to kill for my meat.

I really owe my meat eating habits to butchers who are enabling it :P.

A friend of mine caught a massive rat in his apartment and, after stunning it, decided to put it through a Hobart industrial dishwasher, which uses scalding water to disinfect everything. The rat came out as a big red pile of goo. It was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

How could you ever use dishes out of that washer again...? That is disturbing...

I suppose your gonna have to buy a nice cage and toys and name your new pet.

Splinter was released in the forest. Whether he or she lives a healthy life doing ratty things or becomes owl chow is in nature's hands now.