I just couldn't do it

[Jem_Scout]

When it's time to kill rats here, we bonk them with a rubber hammer on the head or snap their necks. When you're bonking 50 rats at a clip, that's alot of messing around with a pillow case or CO2!

But I'm with Brett...if there's ever a murder in my rat room...I'm going to prison for sure! LOL

[Alika]

Freezing to death is very painful. Think about the water in your outer tissues freezing (frost bite) before your core temperature drops low enough to kill you.

The CO2 induced panic doesn't last long. The brain shuts down very quickly when it doesn't get enough oxygen, and the rat is unconscious when it dies.

[lisagordier]

Originally Posted by BWSmith

Rats and mice I am fine with. It is just prekilling bunnies that i really dislike.

I'm with you on this one. Once I got to feeding rabbits I decided bulk was definately the way to go.

[JuliusSqueezer]

the pillow case method is cruel. You are in a sense just beating the poor thing to death. You can't expect to get a clean head shot in a pillow case. You are just whapping it's whole body against a wall. When I whack, I get the rat by the tail and swing it around overhand letting it's head whack the edge of a table top.

Freezing is a horrible way to die. You think it's an ok death to go sit naked in the snow? try it!...Not all the way to death of course but sit out there awhile and see how painful freezing is. C02 does not cause panic or even discomfort. They just pass out from the lack of oxygen that they don't even know they aren't getting. There is plenty of air to breath so they aren't suffocating or gasping. there is just no oxygen in that particular air. It's similar to what pilots experience when they are up too high without an oxygen mask...no pain, no panic, no gasping...just confusion, loss of coordination and then they pass out and crash.

[gemisnake]

The first time I killed a mouse (because no place had frozen and I was a kid who thought my snake HAD to eat once a week or he'd get sick) I tried to knock it on the head and couldnt do it. So I just put in in a container in the freezer. I checked on it an hour later... still alive and looked so patheticly cold and sad that I had to leave the house and I bawled like a baby! Later that night it was dead but it had trie to chew its way out of the container... I cried again! (I know Im a wuss) well anyways after 10 years of snake keeping I must have gotten desensitized or something. I buy bulk pre frozen rodents usually but have one snake that still wont take frozen, I have to freshly kill her rats and I just thump them on the head with no hesitation now. It is so wierd. Like at the hospital I can do euthenasias with no problem at all now (on a pet I dont know)! Well as long as the owner isnt there, if they are and start crying I still tear up real bad. I really am not barbaric and I would have never guessed that I would become desensitized to animal deaths once it became routine. I still find it very sad when an animal dies for any reason, and I could never hunt... but I guess in time killing the rats just became something I have to do for my snakes.

[gjmccag]

kind of a crazy idea, and i have never tried it, but putting a rat in with a rat trap? anyone think that would be an easy and clean way to kill them?

[gemisnake]

I dont know how clean it would be, but it would be fast (as long as it works right). Growing up my grandpa would put out mouse traps and they were always a bloody mess!

[jjmetro]

Julius, Have you ever had frostbite??? It doesn't hurt at all untill you warm it up, then it hurts like #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&. freezing you get cold, go numb, shiver, fall asleep and pass on.
Co2, is like an asthma attack, put a plastic bag over your head (large enough to have air in it) and breath. tell me when you start panicing...........
This is the EXACT same thing as Co2.

[gemisnake]

UHG!!! Asthma attack, I have severe asthma, if that is how it is even a feeder rat doesnt deserve it. It may be barbaric but I prefer the "whack em on the head" technique. Well actually I prefer to buy mine already killed, frozen and packed neatly in a row!!! It would really stink to live in a place where you cant get frozen rats and mice, sorry.

[dfreeman1313]

Originally Posted by gjmccag

kind of a crazy idea, and i have never tried it, but putting a rat in with a rat trap? anyone think that would be an easy and clean way to kill them?

If you don't have CO2, then a very humane way is cervical dislocation. Take the mouse by the tail and put it on a surface it can grab onto, like a mouse pad (no irony or pun intented!). Pull it gently by the tail and the mouse will automatically grab hold, pull against you, and stretch itself out. Place a pencil behind it's head...firmly against the base of it's skull.....and then with a quick and sharp jerk, pull the mouse by the tail while holding the pencil firmly and you will very quickly and painlessly kill the mouse.
I know some people hate the idea of killing anything, but just remember....anytime YOU eat, SOMETHING had to die.
BTW.....I think whopping it and gassing it (suffocation) are worse than cervical dislocation. Just my humble opinion.

[Alika]

Originally Posted by dfreeman1313

If you don't have CO2, then a very humane way is cervical dislocation. Take the mouse by the tail and put it on a surface it can grab onto, like a mouse pad (no irony or pun intented!). Pull it gently by the tail and the mouse will automatically grab hold, pull against you, and stretch itself out. Place a pencil behind it's head...firmly against the base of it's skull.....and then with a quick and sharp jerk, pull the mouse by the tail while holding the pencil firmly and you will very quickly and painlessly kill the mouse.
I know some people hate the idea of killing anything, but just remember....anytime YOU eat, SOMETHING had to die.
BTW.....I think whopping it and gassing it (suffocation) are worse than cervical dislocation. Just my humble opinion.

I actually heard of this method long before I knew how to set up a cheap CO2 box. I could never bring myself to do it, though. It's too hands-on and mechanical for me... I would seriously cry everytime I felt the pop under my hands.

[dfreeman1313]

Oh I understand....it's not something I would ever look forward to do. But since I know it's humane, I could do it. I don't blame anyone who couldn't!