humane way to prekill rats?

[Mendel's Balls]

In the years I have done this, no one has ever mentioned that neonates have an increased resistance to carbon dioxide, not even veterinarians or my teachers(who are veterinarians and RVTs). Even research facilities such as the cancer research facility in Temple, Texas ran by Scott and White Hospital have never mentioned this and they euthanize hundreds of mammals daily. Hm..

http://oacu.od.nih.gov/ARAC/euthanasia.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=OIZ...u3Ms#PPA256,M1

Check out #4....Sevo and his references are right. Neonatal rats and mice are more resistant to carbon dioxide for exactly the reason he stated. When I use to manage a transgenic mouse colony I saw this first hand.

Now you could debate whether it is "humane" or not, but bottom line is that it takes longer to euthanize neonates with CO2 than adults.

Old thread.....I know.....but he was right.