Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read a lot about using CO2 to put down rats & mice. Sounds relatively humane, you are basically suffocating them quickly. The cervical dislocation is probably quicker and more painless if you don’t have many to do and have the stomach for it.J The problem I have is that I can’t get dry ice locally, so I was wondering if putting the rodents in a vacuum to suffocate them would be just as effective. I could do this by putting them in a pail hooked up to a vacuum generator (Venturi style) and suck all the air out. Should be the same effect as replacing the air with CO2. Just looking for some feedback, has anyone ever tried this or heard of it being done?

Bruce

and its nasty!..

when you remove the air.. you create a vacume.. and you suck the blood right out of the thin tissue in the animals nose, eyes, mouth..

they bleed all over the place and its SLOW too.. they dont just goto sleep.. :

stick with cervical dislocation.. or go buy a c02 canister from a supply shop and setup a chamber around it..

best of luck

dan

I whack the backs of their heads on the edge of a counter or step. If you want to use CO2 but can't get dry ice, you could get a refill canister and an adapter from a paint ball gun for about 25 to 30 bucks. If they are not available locally, try the web or ebay.

DeMak

Suffocation could be caused by replacing the O2 in any chamber with ANY gas, such as Nitrogen. Don’t try a vacuum – haven’t you ever watched a space movie where someone gets caught in the vacuum and begins to ‘expand’?

The reason CO2 is used is not ease of availability of a suffocant, but because at concentrations of greater than 60%, it causes a rapid depression and anesthetic effect of the central nervous system. Within moments, the rodent is in a "coma". Only then, does the lack of O2 cause asphyxiation. But, they are WAY out by the time any sort of suffocation starts.

Quite frankly, I think cervical dislocation is one of the least humane of the frequently used methods. Blunt trauma to the back of the head (swing rodent downward to whack back of head on edge of table, etc) causes much less conscious suffering.