Glenn Albrecht spotted a mouse on the verandah of his Duns Creek property, just south of Paterson.
It went in and out of his work boot in a flash, but he managed to photograph it.
So, when faced with dealing with vermin, is he a man or is he a mouse?
"Sometimes you just have to kill things, otherwise they'll kill you. These decisions are never easy, but I'd rather kill something with a trap than use poison," he said.
In other words, he's a humane man.
He doesn't get many mice, but "we get more than our fair share of bush rats".
Being on an organic property, he doesn't use poisons of any sort.
"I have no compunction about killing rats. It's either them or us - it's one of those primordial things." [The black plague comes to mind in these times of pandemic]
He uses a standard spring-loaded trap to kill rats, along with cheese and peanut paste to attract the vermin.
"They are smart, they do know how to get the bait out without setting the trap off sometimes, which seems incredible," said Dr Albrecht, an environmental philosopher and scholar.
Using poison can kill non-target animals.
"If you dispose of poisoned rats outside or in your garbage, something will eat them and die because they're full of poison."
People think it's humane to trap a bush rat, catch it alive and let it go in the bush.
"The bush is already full of rats in their own territory. A battle usually ensues between the invader and the home team and it's mayhem," he said.
"The same applies to Australian marsupials. If you catch a possum and take it to a nice patch of bush somewhere thinking it's a happily-ever-after story, it's not the case.
"The bush is already full of possums. Usually what happens is the occupiers tear to pieces the cute fluffy possum that was a sweet innocent urbanite."
Some people use sticky traps to kill vermin. Dr Albrecht, who has worked in animal ethics and welfare in academia said: "I can't imagine a worse death than being caught on sticky paper and put alive into the bin".
"I prefer to see it dead. There's no easy solution to these things if you're interested in animal welfare."
When he kills a bush rat in a trap, he leaves its dead body outside.
"It's a perfectly good piece of meat to leave outside for the carnivores of this world. Why waste it?" he said. The next morning it'll be gone, eaten by a tawny frogmouth, owl, feral fox or cat.
Silent Spring
Dr Albrecht said widespread awareness of the harm caused by poisons and chemicals began with Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring.
"From the 1960s onwards we've been aware of the impact of pesticides on our fellow creatures, particularly the birds.
"Rachel was a pioneer exploring the cumulative impact of pesticides and herbicides on all types of living creatures.
"Rachel was a pioneer exploring the cumulative impact of pesticides on all living creatures, including humans.
"We're not only poisoning other creatures in our living system, we're poisoning ourselves."
Examples he cited include phthalates in plastic, PFAS in firefighting foams, glyphosate [a known carcinogen sold as Roundup] and the herbicide paraquat.
"There are numerous other pesticides and herbicides known to be highly toxic and carcinogenic even in small doses and we sell them in Australia."
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