Killed my first rooster yesterday

[Tre3hugger]

There are a lot of ways to dispatch your birds, I have tried throat cutting, decapitation, and neck popping. In all of these instances, including the decapitation, I was assured that if I did it properly, it would be over so fast the birds wouldn't have time to suffer and would die instantly. I would read about it days in advance, watch videos, and make sure I knew what I was doing. Every single time my birds were alive long enough to realize that they were being killed, to feel pain, gasp for air that wouldn't come, choke on their own blood and look into my eyes, shocked and confused for what seemed like forever, but was probably only 10 seconds. Longer, for the throat cutting, that one was the worst imo. People made from tougher stuff than me aren't too bothered by it, but I'm too sensitive for it. I really hope this method picks up some popularity, it will make the whole process so much kinder for all involved.

I'm glad you found something that works for you. I cut jugular on both sides. The bird bleeds out in about 30 seconds. THEN starts death throes when insensible. But I understand that methods not for everyone. I think the biggest deterrent to the helium method is repeated cost. If routinely processing meat birds the helium will get expensive. At that point it literally pays to hone your knife skills. Gas is great for a sick bird or sporadic cull though.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

I'm glad you found something that works for you. I cut jugular on both sides. The bird bleeds out in about 30 seconds. THEN starts death throes when insensible. But I understand that methods not for everyone. I think the biggest deterrent to the helium method is repeated cost. If routinely processing meat birds the helium will get expensive. At that point it literally pays to hone your knife skills. Gas is great for a sick bird or sporadic cull though.

Helium definitely isn't for someone wanting to make a profit through meat birds, it would cost a fortune to do it that way on a big scale unless someone made a chamber that could retain the helium/stop it from escaping so easily. I'm pretty motivated to bust out a ruler and some graph paper, lol.

 

[Cazook]

This is really interesting, thanks for posting. Sometimes a bird needs to be culled and I've done it before but always feel terrible about it. This seems a more humane method.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

Hello, sorry if it's poor form to revive an old thread, but I felt the need to share this. This is a great solution for people who have to cull a bird and can't afford to pay for (or wait for) a vet.

Unfortunately, I never took pictures of my helium chamber setup, but I did improve my method and sit down and make a visual instruction. I also included some ideas for people who are more concerned with cost than putting the bird's feelings first, hoping to find some kind of compromise that works.

If someone who loves animals and is more experienced with engineering and gas exchange than I comes up with some kind of enclosure that conserves helium, birds might be killed more humanely all over the globe. I've tried my best, but I just don't have the education, nor the physical resources.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

If the text in that image is too small, you can see the full size picture in my dropbox, here

https://www.dropbox.com/s/417rzjbcahvomq2/helium_euthenasia.png?dl=0

Right click on the image, and click 'view image' to see the full size.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Hello, sorry if it's poor form to revive an old thread, but I felt the need to share this. This is a great solution for people who have to cull a bird and can't afford to pay for (or wait for) a vet.

Unfortunately, I never took pictures of my helium chamber setup, but I did improve my method and sit down and make a visual instruction. I also included some ideas for people who are more concerned with cost than putting the bird's feelings first, hoping to find some kind of compromise that works.

If someone who loves animals and is more experienced with engineering and gas exchange than I comes up with some kind of enclosure that conserves helium, birds might be killed more humanely all over the globe. I've tried my best, but I just don't have the education, nor the physical resources.

View attachment 2433572

Thanks for taking the time to type this out!

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

Thanks for taking the time to type this out!

You are welcome!

 

[JoePa]

It seems to me that a lot of preparation is needed if one uses this helium method - also things could go wrong and death is not instantaneous - to me it seems chopping a bird's head off with an axe is as quick a death as can be obtained - in a split second the head comes off and the bird is dead - brain no longer connected to the body - think of that