kill or non-kill trap for a mouse?

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I voted for the killing traps.

But I agree with one thing those glue traps are very cruel.

Depends.
If you want them gone and never coming back then kill traps are the way to go.
I've seen a few in my garage and just let them be since I don't have anything against them. These were just common little field mice, not rats. I will go out of my way to kill a rat. Somehow these mice found a way into the attic from there (I still haven't found out how) and more of them came in last winter. I'd hear them running around up there at night and getting into things so that's when it had to stop since they can do damage. I killed several with mouse traps. The old fashioned wooden kind with the spring and wire mouse snapper wasn't working out very well since the mice learned how to steal the bait without getting nailed. I found some plastic ones at Lowe's that are basically a set of spring loaded black plastic jaws with teeth. They have removable bait cups that can be baited with peanut butter. They really kick ass. When you hear one snap shut you've got yourself a dead mouse.

We had them in the building I work in, too. Same thing,' just common field mice. I used to feed them when they'd come by my desk. Someone on day shift had a hissy fit about the "rats" so base pest control was called in. They brought those mouse trays that have some kind of adhesive that the mouse's paws stick to and they can't get loose. I wish they would just use the kind of traps I use since, while still lethal, they are quick and much more humane. Every night or two I was finding a mouse struggling in one of those trays and having to put them out of their misery with a ball peen hammer. That was the quickest and most trauma-free way to do it.

I've never used either kind of mice trap. When I've found mice in the house, I caught them myself under a box or a cup, slid some cardboard underneath and took them outside. Sometimes I had to chase one down and move furniture to get to it, but I got it. Traps are useless, if you don't find out how they are getting in and close off the holes.

The glue traps catch other things besides mice,any small creature can get stuck in them.I know of one instance where a wren was caught.
On the remake of Willard he rescues Socrates from a glue trap.It's an interesting film.

I keep one on the kitchen window sill to catch flies.

I'm afraid to ask if someone was able to free her?

but what if you don't get caught releasing them?

People actually call the 'wildlife service' for spiders? WTF good god if I live there I don't think I'd be abiding by all the 'rules' as I wouldn't want to have to deal with the wildlife service every time I have a venomous spider in my house, would rather just stick it outside, kill it if it seems like it will bite me or leave it alone to eat other bugs that are more annoying than spiders...and snakes well I imagine I would put those outside to but never had a snake in my house just outside because there are lots of garden snakes or whatever they call them in Colorado.

I feel sorry for mice and have no desire to disturb them. but it isn't hygenic to allow them to live free in your house walls, eat your food etc. So if some move in I use live traps and release outdoors, though I am not really sure of what their chances are to successfully relocate. If it happens in winter I will try and euthenize them as humanely as I can manage. I do tolerate them living in my detached shed even though it requires additional cleaning. I avoid those spring and glue traps and anything else that might cause extra pain/suffering. I do the same with moles and voles, even though it means repairing holes in the lawn regularly.

If a non-kill trap was as accessible as the kill-trap, provided it does not hurt the animal, I'd definitely go for that. I live in Finland, thankfully mice and rats are not so much of a problem here, and we have forests everywhere.

I'm gonna assume there is equal access to both traps and choose the trap that doesn't kill.

I can't even kill a flea. It's true! My mum tries to squeeze them if she catches one, or puts them in hot water to watch them drown, then when I get upset she says ''fleas are horrible things!'' I also feel the same about flies - I cannot kill a fly. I know they're unhygienic but I still don't like them dying. I don't like ANYTHING dying. Except terrorists.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The death of any living organism is horrible. However insignificant the life of a little creature may seem to us, as far as that creature is concerned, it's the only life it has. I wouldn't want to cause unnecessary pain or death. But I admit I have killed some pests in the past. Although I was really scared of virus/disease etc that could be brought in to the house by them, killing them didn't feel good.

Let's just say I really hate glue traps and I really like birds,I'll spare you the details.
The only pests I kill are the fleas and ticks on my dog with the drops you appy and I use the mosquito dunks in standing water.We have West Nile here so it's a health issue.

I tried normal spring mouse traps for years and they are largely ineffective, certainly the ones available here in France anyway. No matter how sensitive you set the trap, 9 times out of 10 the mice manage to steal the cheese off the trap without setting it off. I've even tried taping the cheese to the trap but the buggers just carefully nibble through the tape and steal the cheese without setting off the traps! I tried glue traps out of desperation, because as I've already mentioned we live in the French countryside surrounded by fields of corn, and when autumn (fall) comes, there are thousands of mice trying to gain access. It is an invasion. The design of these old stone French farmhouses means that mice have no problems climbing the walls and getting into the houses in the air space between the walls and the roof or via the foundations. Once inside they manage to get all over the house travelling behind the plaster inside the walls. At night I hear them moving around in the walls, in the ceiling and even under the floor!

Before using glue traps, we were often greeted on autumn and winter mornings with mouse droppings all over the kitchen worktops, on the cooker inside the food cupboards, on the draining board, on the "clean" dishes and cutlery, basically everything and everywhere requiring a complete sterilisation and throwing away otherwise good foodstuffs - everything from flour, bread, cakes to rice and pasta because they'd nibbled into the packets, eaten some, then s**t and pissed all over the rest. It is disgusting and very unhygienic, a danger to our health. Glue traps work. They are very effective at catching the mice. Each morning I check the boards and if I've caught a mouse it is greeted with instant death. I've never seen a chewed off leg or any other body part on the boards, so such evasive action must happen only if the boards are left unchecked for a prolonged period and the mouse is starving and desperate to escape. Granted, they are not very happy about their predicament, but aren't in any physical pain stuck to the board. As I mentioned, I give them an instantaneous painless death (I place a sheet of paper or cardboard over them and bring down the heel of my shoe very fast and very hard against them, flattening them instantly). The other morning I found four mice stuck to the same glue board in the attic! Over the last few weeks I've caught and killed around 20 mice who have gained access to the house. If we didn't trap them we'd literally be overrun.

I'll just add that even spring traps don't always kill instantly, on more than one occasion the wire part of the mechanism has hit the mouse towards the middle or lower end of its body and just left it there alive and in pain, paralysed with a broken back, bleeding from the mouth but still desperately trying to escape using its front legs. It ain't pretty.

The live capture traps aren't very good either; certainly the one I got wasn't. It was the first type of trap I bought when we moved here. It caught the occasional mouse which I released outside but the vast majority of the mice just ignored the trap and went elsewhere searching for food rather than try clambering into the trap. They certainly aren't very good against an invasion of mice in the home; maybe OK for catching the rare mouse that has found its way into a garage or other area where no food is kept and it doesn't matter if it takes a week or more to catch it. The live capture trap is still set in the attic with a bit of cheese inside it but I'd say it is at least 100 times less effective at catching mice as a glue trap.

Mouse bait (poison) is quite effective; but the downside is the mice die a slow painful death and this is usually somewhere inaccessible like underneath floorboards or behind a skirting board; then you have to live with the stench of a rotting mouse for a couple of weeks followed by the emergence of a load of meat flies whose maggots have feasted on the carcass.

I'm surrounded by woods so there's no rodent shortage here,the feed for the birds and chickens attracts them.With older homes I don't think there is anyway to make them rodent proof,you'd need a fleet of indoor cats which isn't an option for some.I was able to find and stop up my rodents entrances,but it's a newer home.When they were getting inside they were destructive,chewing up clothes,getting in the pantry,etc.And there were lots of them.I think they leave a pee trail so others can find their way in.In the winter I will hear them in the walls and the attic but there's not really any way to keep them out of those areas.
My ex used Victor snap traps,they may not be available in France.There were still some mice that figured out how to remove the bait,so he used peanut butter, or butter and once tied a peice of pet food to the trap.
The one thing I'm glad to see is no one mentioned poison for them,an awful way to die,and it can poison other animals eating the mouse,like owls and hawks.
It seems like there is a trap that lures them in and delives a electric shock that instantly kills them.

I hate mice. I'd get a kill trap. I was raised to kill pests though. I mean, my family and I shoot coyotes on sight. Sometimes I shoot rabbits in our yard (and wild jack rabbits just for fun). I love pheasant hunting. I would still consider myself an animal lover though. Hunting is for sport. I wouldn't kill a cat just to kill it. Or for that matter a dog, bird or snake. Maybe it makes me a bad person... but I wouldn't really consider myself a nice person to begin with despite being mellow.