Spread the Word -- Don't Freeze Sick Snakes!

Oh and this just seems like more fuel for all the worthless people that release their pets into the wild. 'My snake is too sick, I don't have any money to fix it or put it down, I love my snake and don't want to chop its head off so I'll just let it outside, that's better than killing it!' Call me crazy, but someone is going to do it.

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

This is just crazy to me, it's not ok to put them in the freezer but it is ok to chop off their heads. That's so barbaric, I could not do that. And if I'm understanding the site correctly you can freeze something under 40 grams? My next question, is it more humane to let it starve to death than freeze it? I really don't see people taking their snakes to the vet to be put to sleep, especially if an entire clutch is deformed and putting a rat to sleep at the vet costs $10. I guess people will just start using them as target practice since that will kill them in 1/10th of a second if done right.... I really don't care for that site's message.

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I agree with you if it is sick or something of that nature go to the vet. But what would you do if you discovered that a strip of flexwatt shorted out melted and burned the rack and you had a snake that was burned to the bone from vent to mid body covered in melted plastic and alive? In my case I am 20 min from a vet if it is after hours add 40 min to that. An hour away plus the time for chemical to work... this is not a humane answer. The answer is to stop the suffering now using the most certain means available what ever that is. Something has to be done and done quick. It is a no win situation I can absolutely promise you that but you will do something and hopefully it works fast.

I think a lot of it has to do with the situation and the animal.

It's all a matter of which is the more humane. If you literally CANNOT get to a vet... Is it more cruel for a few moments of pain...Or months of pain? How excruciating are those few moments? Vs. the months of pain....


I also think.. Well, I know it sucks, but the brain crushing..it is instant. Death needs to be instant and painless. I don't think I could do it. But if it needed to be done.. It would be. No matter how awful it is for me, I am not the one in pain, it's the snake. If I have the power to stop my animal's pain, I will. No matter how much it hurts me. I don't want to put an animal in a freezer where it will suffer in agony so that I can feel better if I have the power to give it a quick and much more painless death.

But if someone physically cannot, can NOT take their animal to the vet(for reasons mentioned above) and absolutely cannot bring themselves to end the animals life by their own hands... It comes down to the choices of the less humane euthanasia methods..or the possibly even less humane allowing of the animal to suffer.

So again, it comes down to that choice. On what the situation allows, I say go for the least humane method possible. Some people will be able to give their snakes a peaceful death at a vet's office. Some people will not be able to do that...

I do think whatever our situation, it's our responsibility to do what we do in the most humane way possible for us and our animal. If someone literally only has the option to decapitate and pithe, it won't be AS humane maybe as the falling asleep at the vet..... but is it more humane than letting it suffer for months? I think so..

It's tricky. I don't think we should be quick to judge people. I think in general we are all doing the best we can for our animals. Now if someone has the option to humanely euthanize their animals but chooses not to, that's..different than someone who is doing their best and making the choice to save their animal from pain.

It's all an ethical touchy subject! And a sad one. I don't like the idea of freezing snakes though. It's slow and painful.

Who would put any live animal in a freezer to kill it? That is just horrible. Anyone who would do that is cruel and heartless..no soul :devil:

For a reptile keeper to do this by freezing-

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As a result, reptiles and amphibians can feel their body get cold, which produces pain, but they can do nothing about it. Studies show that they can, literally, feel their cells freeze and rupture as they get further chilled, sensing pain as intensely as if they were being burned alive,

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Is barbaric, it just saves that keeper from having to deliver that extremely difficult death blow themselves.

Instant brain destruction is the fastest and most humane way outside of the vet. Be it brick or shotgun (mentioned earlier) the problem is that someone has to perform the act, not just put it quietly in the freezer and walk away until the reptile has passed away.

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Chilling a herp to death is an awful way to die, and, could they speak, they would describe it as torture. The American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Zoological Veterinarians classify this as cruel treatment of animals and animal abuse and the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians categorize it as an unacceptable method of euthanasia, as well. If a veterinarian recommended this to you, it could be categorized as malpractice.

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Figured Id bring this back up, and to all those that say OMG to freezer, Your big name breeders use the freezer, yet you still buy from them...

Ive witnessed it first hand on many snakes.

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Originally Posted by FalconPunch

^^^ That's very true. Watch this video. Watch all of it, the head still gets defensive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aRi9_Ppepo

granted it's an alligator but that's splitting hairs.

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That was crazy... Poor thing.

There's nothing 'inhumane' about crushing a animal's skull, thereby destroying the brain instantly. If you destroy the brain, the animal is dead and feels nothing. Yes, it's brutal, but it's humane. In the end, isn't it more important that the animal feels no pain, than whether you're squeemish about crushing a skull? A "humane bolt" is the same as a bullet to the skull, instant death. A hammer to the skull, applied with force does exactly the same thing. Instant destruction of the brain.

Sometimes people have the option to use a vet. Sometimes they do not. Maybe because of circumstances, traumatic injury, distance, time of day, etc. Maybe because of economic circumstance, someone lost their job, the car engine needed to be replaced... then the snake is sick/injured and you happen to have no money.

In some cases, the snakes are intended for food. What sort of humane death is reccomended?

And as to why people freeze reptiles, many people STILL believe that reptiles don't feel any pain when freezing to death. I suspect this came from the reptile not moving around while it died. It showed no "signs" of feeling pain, so people decided they didn't feel anything, and maybe they hibernated then died from the cold. NOW we know that the reptiles supposedly feel pain but are IMMOBILIZED by the cold, so it's painful even though they don't move around.

In my opinion, the only acceptable way to freeze a reptile to death would be a freezer that freezes in only a second or two(flash freezing). If the animal's brain is frozen within two seconds, I cannot say that it could possibly be feeling any pain. Most people do NOT have access to that sort of freezer though.

Dynamite.

"AK-47, the very best there is... when you absolutely positively gotta kill every ************ in the room, accept no subsitutes." - Samule L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction

I can see some of the merit to the arguments that have been made, in terms of a prolonged death of months versus minutes being frozen, even if that pain is horrendous in the time it last. I think it would be like having your arm pinned under a vehicle, with no help in sight and having to make the decision of sacrificing your arm and enduring that agony in those few minutes or of enduring possibly hours upon days of that pain...

Suck thought it may, having to make those decisions (euthanasia or not) and then the manner of euthanizing an animal if that need arises, are part of being a responsible pet owner. Yes it sucks, a lot. Yes we get attached to our pets and understandably so...but in the end, that animal is dependent on the owner for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G: food, shelter, care, etc., including taking the initiative to end the animals' life if need be. I would much rather dispatch an animal in as efficient and as painless a manner as possible and by doing so give that animal all the respect it deserves than to agonize and quibble over whether or not to do so or even how to do so if the need arose and in the end, prolong it's suffering. Freezing wouldn't be pleasant but if that's the ONLY means to put one down, well... You do the best with what you've been handed and improvise, adapt, overcome and push on...and cry later if need be, once you've handled the business at hand. I dunno...just my opinions...doesn't mean their right, just my two cents.