Feeder Euthanasia the Easy Way, and Humane too...

[littleindiangirl]

What is your point nixer?

Are you saying that the mice shouldn't be euthanized in a humane way because, in your opinion, veterinarians do not know how to care for a reptile?

I guess the mice should suffer an inhumane death because you think veterinarians can't care for reptiles. What are you talking about?

I don't follow your logic at all!!!

Tyler, I suggest you read thoroughly the AVMA section on the use of CO2. The text is not concrete, and is open to interpretation, which we have all done, either for or against dry ice.

I personally believe CO2 by the dry ice method is also humane. No where in their text to they explicitly say that it is inhumane, nor do they hint at it. They simply say that for reasons of control, it is not acceptable.

You may have taken this to mean it is inhumane, but if you were to read the complete text of the article, you would know that where they find a method inhumane, they explicitly say so and why. I do not feel they leave those methods open to speculation.

There is only that small mention of dry ice, no where else do they mention it, also, it is not at the end of the article in the unapproved methods.


Now. Back to my interpretation.

They do mention that they only recommend the use of a regulator as the only acceptable means, however....

Time to loss of consciousness is decreased by use of higher concentrations of CO2 with an 80 to 100% concentration providing anesthesia in 12 to 33 seconds in rats and 70% CO2 in O2 inducing anesthesia in 40 to 50 seconds...
...Time to loss of consciousness will be longer if the concentration is increased slowly rather than immersing the animal in the full concentration immediately.

And,

Several investigators have suggested that inhalation of high concentrations of CO2 may be distressing to animals, because the gas dissolves in moisture on the nasal mucosa. The resulting product, carbonic acid, may stimulate nociceptors in the nasal mucosa.

A brief study of swine examined the aversive nature of CO2 exposure and found that 90% CO2 was aversive to pigs while 30% was not. For rats, exposure to increasing concentrations of CO2 (33% achieved after 1 minute) in their home cage produced no evident stress as measured by behavior and ACTH, glucose, and corticosterone concentrations in serum

They do not mention anywhere what the levels of CO2 production are for dry ice, but I hazard a guess a search would find this information.

I will take a stab in the dark and say the CO2 released is very high in percentage, which allows for a short time to unconsciousness, approx 15-33 seconds (AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia, pg. 8) and falls into their guidelines of being a humane way to dispatch rodents.

If you find concrete proof that the CO2 being given off by dry ice falls below the rate or concentration percentage they mention in the article I will concede. Until then, I do not think you can say that using dry ice is inhumane when used properly like directed in this thread.

My .02 cents.