Is using nitrous oxide (the laughing gas the dentists give you) a good alternative to using co2 to euthanize rodents? It can kill the same as co2 does but presumably it would have a calming effect that would leave the animal feeling much nicer. Plus, I've heard co2 can really irritate their lungs and nasal passages.
Bump
CO2 makes up around 0.4% of the atmosphere. Death is not something that will be completely humane, unfortunate reality.
>>2088283
yes, it's fine.
CO2 causes a choking sensation before death. It's one of the very few inert gasses that actually hurts you when you suffocate on it.
pretty much anything is better. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen, helium, whatever.
>>2088875
Ya, this. As a diver I can say that CO2 poisoning sux. N2 narcosis (similar to N2O at depth) can be frightening in an already scary situation, but is usually pleasant. A simple hypoxic mix (argon or any previous post) will kill humans without pain or warning, a real problem for rebreathers! OTOH some research suggests rodents can detect low O2 conditions better than us and suffer where we would not.
>don't kill things you care about with CO2
Why not just smash them?
Serious advice here. Yes, its messy. Yes, it's terrible but if you are looking for something painless and humane, it's just the way to go and the only thing stopping you would be your own psych.
>>2088283
do people not just feed live mice anymore?
>>2088872
I've harvested a multitude of farm based animals my entire life, it's amazing how difficult it is for some folks to grasp this very basic concept.
No matter the level of humanity that is attempted to be doled out, death will never be beautiful.
>>2088976
Smashing something with a skull can be harder than people think though.
The amount of "I saw a baby bird dying so I tried to smash it's head and just ended up flattening it while it was still in pain" stories is terrible.
>>2089049
Overdosing on a sedative is fairly calm though or one of the chemical killers.
Just expensive as fuck and makes the dead meat useless.
>>2089050
Yeah, I work with college kids and mentor them at a local university relative to fisheries research and it is amazing to me how scared they are of animal death when I teach them about field research or lab research.
You know, when you harvest say something like.........a bass, or what the fuck ever, you have to bonk it on the head and rip its gills out to bleed it prior to bringing it home, for flesh preservation purposes. The kids are really soft about shit like that, especially the females, I think that is kind of expected though.
>>2089052
Maybe it's due to the fact that they have a lot of empathy.
