'nice' way to kill a rat?

[Smilts]

i just thump them at the base of there head they die right then

[Smilts]

wife says i cant thump the kids to get them in trouble though

[Smilts]

Ive heard that if you put a thum tack into its skull after dethawing the smell is stronger

[steen]

Just thought I would post this info, as it may help some of you...I work in a research lab at a university that uses mice, rats, and gerbils for disease, feed, and breeding studies. A lot of research has been done to find the most humane way to "euthanize" these animals. They take into consideration the suffering of both the animal and the person doing the deed. They have found that the most humane way to kill a mouse is (by far) CO2. I can attest to this as I use it nearly every day. The most humane way to kill a rat, however, is technically decapitation. Since this is often more rough on the person (and not favorable for a feeder), the next best choice is cervical dislocation. The downfall to this is that, if a person is not properly trained to perform it, it can lead to a lot of pain and suffering for the animal. If it is not possible to have someone experienced show you this method, then CO2 for rats is the third most humane method. There is research to back this up...thought I should mention it. Hope it helps!

[meluvstgr]

Thank god I don't have to worry about this for a while. Mikey won't be eating mice or rats for a while. And my ball python was eating fuzzies live when I took her back.

I like the whacking in a bag method tho. Guess I'll decide when the time comes.

[stkkts]

Where can you get dry ice in the US?

[KingJaff]

I would like to say that putting an animal in the bag cant be that humane because u dont know which part of the body is going to hit the ground first so this is bound to be unpleasent and messy.
I am interested in the way my animals (mice, rats, hampsters, gerbils and chicks) have been killed and in england it seems most of them have been droped into liquid nitrogen as they often have a flat side to them (as if your face was pushed up againts a pain of glass) but this could be done after co2. Also i have noticed that occasionally some rodents obviously have been killed by a blunt truma as they have blood on the heads and indentations in their heads (not nice). I would suggest cervical dislocation to be humane (and keep the animals "good karma", free range and all that.)
I was wondering how do you store dry ice as it needs to be kept at -30 odd degrees rite? I may breed a feeder some time in the future

[Linds]

Originally posted by KingJaff
gerbils and chicks) have been killed and in england it seems most of them have been droped into liquid nitrogen as they often have a flat side to them (as if your face was pushed up againts a pain of glass) but this could be done after co2. Also i have noticed that occasionally some rodents obviously have been killed by a blunt truma as they have blood on the heads and indentations in their heads (not nice)future

Have you been told that they were dropped in to liquid nitrogen or is this an assumption based on the fact that they have a flat side? I've never heard of anyone using liquid nitrogen??? All my rats die via blunt trauma, and most of them come out of the freezer flat, jsut the way I lay them out so they don't get frozen together. At work they were often flat, and they were not dipped in liquid nitro either...

[V.hb]

There is NO nice way to kill anything....... its going to hurt when force is involved....... Trying to explain to yourself and others that it doesnt is just denial..... It;s gotta be done unfortunatly.... But if you're doing it yourself invest in some sort of gassing..

[Lisa]

here is a website that has info on where to buy dry ice in the united states http://www.dryiceinfo.com/where.htm

I'm sure there's other places besides their listing, look in your phone book

Here in canada you can go to praxair.