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Our daughter's pet rat - warning, could be graphic
hypernova:
To be honest, this went pretty much how I thought it would...just not quite as I HOPED it would.
--- Quote from: ark_ader on February 26, 2012, 08:29:20 am ---Aww how cute! Reminds me of my hamster when I was a kid.
I would have just let it go off in the wild (in the neighbors garden) and let the poor guy have some freedom before the inevitable.
Killing animals is now too upsetting for me, after I had to put my dog down at the vet last year (nearly to the day). My poor little Yorkie looking up at me, as they were putting the needle in. :'(
It stays with you forever.
I think everyone should be given the opportunity to witness their pet animal's death, so you can appreciate how special they are, and always remember them with love and respect.
You will cherish your next pet even more.
--- End quote ---
When our daughter kept bothering us for one, we kept resisting, joking how we'd probably end up killing it because, hey, it's a rat. I'd say it only took about a week for her to grow on us. Never knew a rat could be so cute!
I couldn't just let it go, because then I'm stuck wondering if it went fast, if some owl or hawk or whatever picked her up and slowly picked her apart. Seems like most parents feel relieved to find their child has been dead when they have been missing for months or longer. The unknown is far more torturous.
I've been present for a dog being put down. It's not too bad. The needle in them barely hurts, and they do just go to sleep. It doesn't bother me, because it isn't "sloppy" like taking matters into your own hands. Unfortunately it's just not an option for small animals, unless the vet agrees to use some inhalant anesthetic prior to the direct-heart injection, which would usually cost you more.
And definitely, it stays with you. Images are still flashing in my head periodically. Just hoping that they decrease in frequency.
--- Quote from: Ed_McCarron on February 25, 2012, 10:26:19 pm ---"I wanted to do CO poisoning in the garage"
Got any paintball stuff? I had to kill a mouse that was stuck in a trap. Put it in a box and flooded the box with CO2. Took 30 seconds. Surprisingly little reaction from the mouse. Still felt kind of gruesome.
I hear a chunk of dry ice in a styrofoam cooler will work, too.
--- End quote ---
That and the dry ice were options that I read, but it's kind of hard to assume that suffocation for animals is any different than it is for humans - Absolutely terrifying.
Your mouse thing reminds me of a situation I had at another house. Caught a mole with a mole trap. It was the only friggin' mole I managed to get. It had become exposed above ground after being speared by the tines, and was basically doing its movements like it was still underground, traversing its tunnels. This didn't bother me at all. All I did at the time was take the mole trap and repeatedly stab it with the fat stabilizing spikes that go into the ground (not the tines themselves). I don't even remember if I actually killed it or not. I just chucked it down into the woods behind the house. I had no issues with any of that experience. That to me was just a pest, no different than a fly or mosquito. Interesting considering it's about the same weight as little Sophie.
--- Quote from: Gray_Area on February 26, 2012, 12:11:17 am ---You should've looked up how to wring a chicken's neck, first. Done and over.
--- End quote ---
Reading and applying: Two completely different actions. The first attempt at anything never goes right. This was also something I found, but no experience in it, so I could totally botch it.
After the first 24 hour period, the images are still with me. However, I'm a little bit more at peace that I did the right thing, as well as more confident she was out after the first hit. It just still hurts that I was faced with this decision in the first place.
Le Chuck:
--- Quote from: pinballjim on February 26, 2012, 06:07:56 pm ---Cervical dislocation is pretty much instant for a rat/mouse though many people hate doing it.
--- End quote ---
+1 - that's what I always had to use with the feeder rats for the high dollar snakes in various exhibits.
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