Sorry but having used the CO2 method of a small amount to put them to sleep and then a "flood" to kill them myself, on my own rats, in my own process I can say they did not suffer in any visible manner at all.
Giving them some CO2 made them a little wobbly and they laid down. I added more and they stopped moving completely, at which point I "flood" a lot in and within a moment they were dead.
There was NO thrashing, gasping, spasms or any indication of pain or distress. Yes, if you drop a rat into CO2(pure CO2) then it will be painful and the rat will struggle. It doesn't happen that way if you do it right.
The American Humane has researched thoroughly the manners of euthanasia and you can look up all the studies. The accepted forms they endorse include proper CO2 and pithing the brain.
If I have to kill a python, I would probably do it with a large hammer strike to the head in the brain pan. Instant death. Yes, it's brutal. But yes, it instantly destroys the brain. No brain = no pain. Pithing is the more focused version, where you scramble JUST the brain. I worry that trying to enter the brain cavity, I may miss the brain(it's not very large) and cause pain. Thus the hammer strike. If someone is more confident in hitting the brain with the first attempt at pithing, it would indeed be another instant death, equaling no pain.
Getting pure nitrogen, nitrous oxide, or other gases is not so easy as running down to the store to pick up a canister. If you have access, fine. BUT if nitrogen flooding is so much more humane and cheap and easy, then why wouldn't the American Humane and all the labs and such being using it already?
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