Ok so this is my opinion, and that only.

I do not care for CO2 chambers, i have used them in the past when killing off literally hundreds of rats at a time, but like others have said if i had to choose how to end it for my personal self i would choose blunt trama. If you know what your doing and get it right it "in my opinion" is the quickest and least painful way to go. My father is a surgeon and ive had conversations similar to this thread with him. After talking with him in the past we have both sided with snapping the spinal cord, as long as you know what you are doing it literaly only takes seconds vs the minutes that a CO2 chamber can take. It does take a much longer time to individually whack each animal vs using a chamber to cull many at one time.

As far as the freezer route goes, i would never throw a live rat into a freezer for many reasons. First being that they can survive in temps lower then 32 degrees. I have actually heard stories and personally know people that tried before and opened the freezer days later and there was a lathargic half frozen live rat trying to chew its way out. I dont think being locked in a cold dark box is very humane, but it is only my opinion as well. I know what it feels like to sit outside in the snow for more then 20 mins and ive seen documentaries about the effects of frostbit and how your body literally starts shuting down and it just doesnt seem like a good time to me.

Anyways i use the whack method, a good hard 90 degree angle with the knowledge of what your doing has always been efficient and quick for my animals. After you whack them you can always by hand seperate their spinal cord to make sure that they are actually dead. As soon as the spinal cord is snapped, there is no feeling, the twitching is just the remainder of nerves but does not mean the animal is still alive (if the spinal cord is snapped)

Ok im done..lol.. sorry for the super long post. As others have said it comes down to a personal opinion and what the breeder feels is the best way to go about it. I will not bash anyone for their thoughts on this matter cause in the long run we are all turning up with the same results, a way of keeping our animals that we care for fed and happy. We raise cows, pigs and lambs ext for meat, it is unfortunatley the same circle of life that goes on in the snake trade.

Again just my opinions


Kim
N,A,R,C

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