I just couldn't do it

[HisssssyFit]

Well yesterday afternoon, the soon to be hubby brought home a white mouse for our RB. After reading the live pile thread I told him we will never feed live again (luckily we only fed it once before, owing a creature for two weeks has its advantages) he said fine, we won't feed live but you have to kill it. *insert bravado here* Sure no problem I'll kill it, no big deal...oh yeah sure.

I'm a big animal lover, I love them all, no matter what specie I love it, heck I even think crickets are pretty cute and cockroaches aren't all that bad and certainly do spend a lot of time cleaning themselves...so there is was, the cutest lil white mouse I have ever seen in my life...and the big bully looks at me and says go ahead kill it. We've been together 9 years I know what he wants to see, he wants to see me back out or at least start and then back out...da bugger...I tell him as much and he gives me an evil smile...I know that man wayyy too well.

I went upstairs to the linen closet got an old pillowcase, came back down put the cutey...erm I mean mouse in there and then looked at him forlornly while he goes, go ahead what are you waiting for? I pout and he grabs the back from me and whacks it on the wall..surprisingly gently...he didn't want to make a big mess out of it. I was horrified, but in the end I got what I wanted, the RB had a fresh killed mouse and was unhurt, why do I feel so bad...such a wimp

[Kent K25]

I'm no mouse lover, or rat lover either (I actually can't stand em really), but i never liked whacking em either. I guess I'm just a big wimp!

Sad thing is when handling the rats before whacking them I was always worried about getting bit by the rats.

My sister on the other had, had several pet rats growing up, never feared getting bit (for good reason), but is scared to death that my snakes will bite her. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

[Heidi]

It is not an easy thing to do for most people. We raised our rats and had 3 pet rats. I loved them like pets but their babies were fair game. We had to let them grow because we needed medium to very large rats so I did the best I could not to get attached to those because I knew what was going to happen. My husband did all the killing of course glaring at me the whole time because I'm the one who took Pie to vet and had to look at those awful pictures. We also had to kill gerbils for a while because Pie decided he didn't want rats anymore and I used to have gerbils for pets growing up. Luckely he went back to rats after only killing two gerbils.

You are normal, perfectly normal feelings. If it came down to it though you would have done it, I'm sure of it. We do things for the lives of our pets that we would not otherwise do.

[HisssssyFit]

I guess you really have to have a certain type of personality to be able to stand killing another living creature, especially something so small. If I had my way my house would be a zoo, luckily for everyone its a townhouse so I'm limited as to what I could squeeze in there.

[CRG]

My dh will not even kill a fish so I made my son do it and told him to hit it hard so it wouldnt suffer and he hit it so hard it burst open and splattered all over the wall(it was in a double plastic bag which also burst)....Needless to say I built myself a euthinizing tub for the rats I raised.....But now I just buy frozen..Seriously consider buying bulk frozen it is the best, easiest least stressful way to go..

[Alika]

Oh, do I ever know how you feel.

We have to buy our rats live to get the size we need in the quantities we need around here. We buy them live, euthanize them, and then freeze 'em for later.

I have the hardest time seeing them alive, then watching them die.

I make my husband do it, but I help.

Whacking seems so violent to me... I've never been able to do it that way. If you want to know a less violent way, we euthanize our rats with co2. You just get a small tupperware (for use with rats only, obviously), and a small chunk of dry ice. Put the dry ice in the tupperware to prime it. When it gets full of smoke, you put the rat in and close the lid tight. In less than a minute, they are unconscious, and then they die soon after.

It really sucks, but, to me, it's better than whacking. If you do it, though, don't get a bigger piece of ice than you need and try to make sure the rat doesn't touch the ice too much, or it will get burned.

[HisssssyFit]

Buying frozen mice/rats is not an option here. I live in the Caribbean, we have a long way to come before we reach there. I only know of one vet in the island who sees about snakes so you could see what I'm up against.

I like the dry ice idea, I'll find out from the fiance where we could get some.

[DeadIrishD]

I can kind of see where you are coming from, and think that if I had the chance to kill a human, or an animal, I'd choose human, because atleast they can put up a fight, and have a chance of survivial. although irrelivant....

thats why I am happy that I can get frozen rats to feed to the snakes.

[Kent K25]

Originally Posted by DeadIrishD

I can kind of see where you are coming from, and think that if I had the chance to kill a human, or an animal, I'd choose human, because atleast they can put up a fight, and have a chance of survivial. although irrelivant....

thats why I am happy that I can get frozen rats to feed to the snakes.

Where are you from again? Gotta put it on my list of places NOT to go

[BWSmith]

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