Feral goats

Matrix showing the relative humaneness of feral goat control methods.

The ‘humaneness’ of a pest animal control method refers to the overall welfare impact that the method has on an individual animal. A relatively more humane method will have less impact than a relatively less humane method.

A model for assessing the relative humaneness of pest animal control methods (Sharp and Saunders, 2008) has been developed under the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS). This model has been used to assess the humaneness of a variety of methods used to control pest animal species in Australia.