Being a vegan means you do what you can and all you can to minimise your contribution to animal suffering and exploitation; it doesn't mean you sacrifice your own health or safety – allowing animals to endanger your health and safety and that of your family, particularly your children, is not vegan it is irresponsible and stupid.

Though a dilemma, because you don't want to harm life, it is essential to rid your house of rodents and other pests if you have an infestation.

Unfortunately mice and rats don't come into the house singly – they move in en masse and breed very quickly – so catching them singly and putting them outside isn't really a practical option.

If taken outside they will soon find their way back in anyway. I f you take them a great distance away, you're killing them anyway.

There is no point in being sentimental about mice and rats – they are a huge health hazard and a danger when in your home. A danger because they need to gnaw constantly and will present a very real fire risk by gnawing on electric cables. A health risk because they spread disease – they are there for your food and will contaminate that; mice urinate and defecate constantly and that will be spread around wherever they go. Each female mouse can have 5 – 10 litters per year of up to 13 young each time; each of the new born mice will be able to breed at about 7 weeks. Do the maths and see how quickly the population will increase – you’ll never catch them all.

A better option is to try and prevent pests coming in. You can get a plug-in device that emits a noise inaudible to humans but intolerable to rodents and to other pests like cockroaches; make sure your kitchen is squeaky clean, with no food scraps or crumbs to tempt them in; and try to block up any holes or gaps where rodents might get in – bearing in mind that if you can get a ball point pen into a hole, a mouse can get through it. They tend to stay away if you have a cat, too.

If having tried all the above you still get an infestation you have a responsibility to deal with it properly. Your health and safety and that of your family comes first.

I'm vegan and I would call in the exterminators if precautions failed – just as I would defend myself against any creature – animal or human – that was threatening my health, safety or life

Put all your food in unaccessible containers

I'm not sure.
Is it vegan to remove them at all when you are doing so for your own gain? Maybe if its a health issue.
Sorry, I don't know. Good question though

Firstly, clean your pantry and kitchen. Put everything that's not in a tin into a sealable container of some sort and scrub all of the surfaces and shelves to elminiate any crumbs.

Next, put your garbage in metal cans at the far end of your property and keep as little in cans inside as possible.

Lastly, get a cat. Cats are nature's mouse trap and are a part of the balance of the universe.

You can buy humane live traps for rats. Here is one for $21 http://www.americanpestsupplies.com/servlet/the-624/CatchMaster-Humane-Live-dsh-Catch-Trap/Detail
You could also try to make your own. Here is a website that details how to construct your own live trap, and how to release it when its caught. http://www.helpinganimals.com/wildlife_livingWithRats.asp
Keep your food in secure containers. And place your trash cans far from your house. Continue trap and release until they are gone. Good luck!

Well if you have tons of them putting your food away won't do anything because they can feed off the walls and they can feed out of the waste in your toilet I am not kidding they feed off of anything they're is nothing you can do but set up mouse traps and set them free or give them to a pet shop or something but DO NOT use the sticky ones those hurt they're little toes so bad *tear* but back to the fact you have to get rid of them!.

yes, tidy up. and you can get humane traps from home depot, lowe's, even walmart. for like 4-5$
( i know i try not to step foot in those places, but sometimes you have to. those stores do offer 5 finger discounts from time to time)

cats.

Vegan philosophy is as far as possible to care the earth & earthlings without much discrimination to other lives of species. Vegan's knowledge is never stop at eating habit alone, but is the taproot of humanitarianism in which the intellect is vital for others to stem from it.
Rodents are the major vertebrate cause of crop loss and spoilage worldwide. They are also significant vectors of human and animal disease.

The nature must always in ecological balance if the PESTS & PREDATORS are living in harmonious equilibrium. (But this hardly becomes ideal nowadays as the human overpower & exploits the nature and blunders the ecosystem. Similarly the human overpopulation & devastation of the rainforests & wetlands, flora, fauna & Green House Effect. Therefore humananimal is the WORST PEST on the earth). Therefore we should not entirely blame the pests for overpopulate & outbreak from their habitat. I think everyone would agree to this reality.

Prevention & deterrence is better than detection & control. Investigate why your area/house is overpopulating and attracting the rodents. You will surely get the correlation. No predator i.e cats, birds, barn owls, snakes, etc? Or the surrounding/your home sanitation is facilitating their breeding & hiding? the simplest approach to rodent control is to prevent rodents from getting into your building. Try Integrated Pest Management (IPM) against rodents.