The Vegan Approach to ‘Pest’ Control - Saving Thousands of Animals

By Kevin Newell - Humane Wildlife Solutions

If you have had mice or rats and want a solution it's horrible seeing that most options are lethal but did you know there is a fully non-lethal vegan alternative out there to help you? Humane Wildlife Solutions (HWS) is the solution. It’s Europe’s only multi-award winning, ethical, environmentally friendly alternative to pest control.

Kevin Newell - the Founder of Humane Wildlife Solutions

We have been operating for over 10 years now and through our work we have worked on over 6,000 cases of wildlife conflict. By offering this non-lethal vegan alternative to pest control we save lives on every job because we will never harm wildlife. Not only this but we have shown it can be done successfully time and time again.

These gull chicks below were rescued from a building being demolished and I stepped in to help with the rescue. It started with a local seeing the building was being pulled down so she contacted me directly asking for urgent assistance. Luckily I was free and set to work to get the demolition stopped. I was terrified they were just going to go ahead despite me making it clear the laws surrounding gulls. 

Rescued gull chicks prior to a demolition

After many frantic calls to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), the site manager and the police, we won and they had to stop. I was delighted and couldn't believe I managed to bring together all these people to stop the work and save the gulls. The demolition company then had to pay for safety devices to get me on the roof to rescue the chicks before they were taken off to be reared by a wildlife rescue centre. A large crowd had gathered and cheered the rescue of the gulls.

Kevin has provided a link to a news article about the Gull rescue here (please note this is an external link): Good Gully: Cute chicks rescued from Saltcoats hostel demolition

From commercial high street clients to people in their homes, our work helps anyone having a wildlife conflict. This could be mice in a commercial restaurant or a family having rats in their garden. Whatever the case we find our clients a non-lethal solution to remove the conflict without harm to wildlife. We even now offer global consultations to help people all over the world.

Kevin Newell surveying deterrents at a gull nesting trial site in Glasgow. The adult gull was trying to keep me away from her nest site.

My motivation for this work has been a lifelong passion for animals and wildlife. As a teenager, I was fascinated by animals and spent my teenage years either writing about them, recording them or going out looking for them in the wild. When I wasn't doing these I would volunteer at an animal rescue sanctuary and it's here I learnt about veganism through my work spending time with animals. 

I started the business after being made redundant from a job helping people which I greatly enjoyed.  But this made me want to find and do a job I would truly love and be passionate about. There was simply no job out there like that for me, so after a bit of research I decided to start my own business so I could do what I loved, helping animals. 

It wasn’t easy as people laughed at me and my idea of offering a vegan alternative to ‘pest’ control but I wasn’t going to be put off as I knew this idea could work.  It took 6 years of hard work to show people how effective it is, how it can save lives, protect the environment and do a better job than lethal pest control. 

I remember one day being asked to help with the removal of 30+ baby pigeons from a rail bridge in a little Scottish town called Dunbar.  A local had seen that work was due to start to remove (kill) the pigeons and block off the bridge they were using as their home.  When they got in touch I sprang into action and contacted the council and pest controllers to ask to be allowed to step in and rescue the birds.  Shockingly both refused our help and the pigeons were to be killed. 

Rescued pigeon squabs from a town called Dunbar in Scotland

Then a public campaign sprung into action. They contacted the council demanding the birds not be killed and within a few days they contacted me asking for my help to take all the pigeon squabs away. So I sorted out a rescue place, loaded the car with incubators to keep the squabs warm and set off for the long drive to the site. We ended up with 30+ pigeon squabs being rescued from death and taken to a wildlife rescue that we work with. I was delighted that again we had won and saved all these little squabs.

I don’t just help people with wildlife conflicts in their homes and businesses but also do research and policy work to help the wider laws surrounding wildlife, from contributing to help glue traps being banned in Scotland, working on the licenses of the new hunting laws in Scotland and our ongoing trials to find non-lethal deterrents for gulls.  We aim not just to help wildlife but to create a better and safer space for the wildlife we share this planet with. These three achievements are one of the highlights for the business over the years as well as all the animals we have helped.

For our future, we are hoping to open a new branch and continue our research projects to help more animals.

Kevin Newell

Owner of the Multi Award Winning

Humane Wildlife Solutions  

Kevin has provided a link to his company's website and facebook profile, click here if you want to access them: www.humanewildlifesolutions.co.uk

www.facebook.com/HumaneWildlifeSolutions