Cats, dogs, rabbits and such can't get in my work gardens. I've got a 6 foot high galvanized steel deer and predator fence that has 1 inch spacing at the bottom graduated to 4 inch spacing at the top. In addition, I've got a 30 inch high galvanized steel hardware cloth that has I/2 inch spaces anchored in the ground about 4 inches deep designed to keep out rodents like voles and gophers. But occasionally, a gopher is resourceful enough to tunnel under both fences to gain entry. That's when the traps come out rather than poison baits which both birds and rodents might eat and while still alive and weak, become easy prey for a hawk or owl or even a cat to take home to feed to their babies. Now in the front mixed gardens for show, I don't even need a fence because they are the favorite hunting grounds for neighborhood cats. The only bad experience I had with traps was a garter snake accidently got caught in one a few years ago. That bothered me.
