Thursday, January 10, 2008

Pest control companies and price rigging

Thanks to Yskat for sending in this very interesting article on pest control companies. In another story in the Straits Times, there were more details of the pest control companies and the alleged price rigging.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone know for sure how pest controllers are paid for trapping cats?

Dawn said...

I called one up and if you hire them professionally, it can be $50 a cat. I've heard it's a lot cheaper if it's a contract though.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we can "contract" them to trap for sterilisation, then perhaps they can rethink their attitude towards cats!

Dawn said...

Yes I did think that would be a good idea too!

Anonymous said...

To hire pest control company to trap cats for the purpose of sterilization one has to be careful.
These people work for salaries, they are not always animal people. They may be angered in the process of trapping the struggling cats. And violent and abusive behaviours usually follows this destructive emotion and your poor cats will get it. Unless you know the tech personally, otherwise please don't hire them.

Dawn said...

Actually I think that as a client you can dictate what you want them to do. If they find out for example that people doing welfare work are willing to pay, then if commerce is their main aim, they will do what it takes to make their clients happy. If enough people doing TNRM hired them actually I am pretty sure you could influence even their working for other companies.

Aminah Bee said...

I had twice in the past, hire pest controllers to trap my difficult to capture wild stray cats. The pest controllers use net as my efforts in using cat trap failed repeatedly. If I am not mistaken it cost either $80 for their trapping (netting) and transport send to vet for sterilisation and return cat to me - this was about 3years ago.
It does not include sterilisation fees.
Dawn is right - pest controller work for anyone, whether it be for animal welfare people, Town Council, or even cat haters, as long as they are paid, they do the job.
The pest controllers I hired are efficient in their job, and as I am present during the cat capture, I never noticed any cruelty or rough handling of the stray cats.

Anonymous said...

I cannot stomach their presence, sorry folks.