I agree - hopefully the babies have not been placed with owners that cannot be tracked.

What a horrible situation for you though - especially being rescues, your collection is exposed as a result of your compassion, and that's so sad...

However, I've read quite a lot on different methods of reptile euthanasia. Aside from injected methods that a vet would use which are humane, freezing is not always considered humane, even though it is an easy option for people. The theory is that death by freezing may be very painful for reptiles, since they do "slow down", they may be conscious when ice crystals begin forming in their tissue.

Another method in question was decapitation - since so many "rattlesnake roundups" use this method. Since reptiles are coldblooded and can survive on much less oxygen than mammals, it has been noted that a severed snake head will look around and move (or bite!) several minutes after decapitation, showing that the animal might be quite aware for a while.

Even death by C02 inhalation, which is considered humane for euthanizing rodents, may not be for reptiles, since they can survive much longer without oxygen, and would "strangle" slowly instead of being knocked unconscious.

From everything I read, if chemical euthanasia is not possible, the next most humane thing is "brain destruction", described as "crushing the skull quickly" or "piercing the brain cavity with a sharp instrument and destroying the brain". I know I could never do that, which I'm sure is why many people use the freezer method - it's the easiest for reptile-loving people to do themselves.

Just food for thought. I read a lot about this topic back when I was considering raising my own rodents (and was thinking about using a C02 system for that), and stumbled across a few papers on reptile euthanasia.

In any case, I'm very sorry to hear about the diagnosis. Are you going to get a second opinion, or is the evidence pretty solid?
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

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