Should I be proud of myself, or ashamed?

[98 gt]

Quote:
again, ive had to do that as well...

 

[Chauntecleer's Keeper]

I had to put down one of my goat kids a couple of months ago. It was hartbreaking, and I cried like a little baby. My wife stayed with my while I buried him. I did everything I could for him, but in the end I had to end his suffering. It is part of having livestock. You did the absolute right thing.

 

[Umbral_Necropolitan]

I could never decapitate an animal that I cared for as I know it is a painful way to die, I have pet turtles, 2 of whom, if left to nature would be dead now as one doesn't have a hinge (very important to box turtles) and the other is walleyed... If it came down to having to put an pet down I would give it medicine to put it down. Then again I raise animals to be part of my family, not livestock.

If you're raising them for food or selling, I can understand culling the sick and weak, but if raised for pets I cannot understand. Mashed up pain pills would be more humane than decapitation in my opinion though, as the brain is alive for a few seconds afterward most likely in a state of shock but I digress... A bullet to the brain would be less painful, since the brain would be destroyed less than a second after firing.

Not trying to be judgmental of anyone, since what works for me might not work for you, just writing how I feel about the subject.

 

[jipjip]

Unless you are a vegan (eat no meat or animal products) then every day animals die because of you (and me and everyone else). It is more honest to acknowledge this and kill them humanely than to kid yourself that meat arrives ready made on a plastic tray in the supermarket, or that some kind soul looks after all the old chickens that don't lay any more.

When we kill our own poultry we are facing the reality of life and death just like humans everywhere had to do right through history. It is only in the last 50 odd years or so that we have been able to turn a blind eye to it.

Although I don't like killing chooks I will if I need to. It is one of the aspects of chicken keeping that keeps us close to nature and reality. You did the right thing.

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
actually mashed up pain pills or an overdose is actullly agonizing and painful. The body just does not fall asleep with that method like people think. It is poison essentially and the taker gets very sick usually throwing up and all sorts of belly pain before death. By cutting the head off there is no way for pain to be sent or received There maybe a few deth throws but nothing like an OD would cause. Now having a vet do it is different because the meds they use do put the animal to sleep first but crushed pain pills would not do it.

edited to say there are some other methods used with making gases such as a vinager solution and that would work as well if you wanted/needed to cull

 

[98 gt]

smaller animals- usually cutting the head off or CO2 method is pretty good also...
large animals- cutting the head off is a much larger job, but you could inject air into the artery and cause an embolism which would kill fairly quickly and painlessly

 

[warmfuzzies]

Yes, I agree. I dont think you could say any pain pill OD would be painless, except if you were using specific pills that most people dont have in their homes. Narcotics will put you to sleep, I think, but even then i dont know that it would be painless in an OD.

I think this would be something that would have to be specialized. Plus most people dont have legal access to the neccesary drugs to do it painlessly.

 

[farrier!]

I was not going to say much but now I will.
With 40+ years of living with and boarding horses I have had to have a number put down. Giving an overdose of the meds they use for surgery is easy on the horse but takes a long time and vet willing to wait long enough to be sure the horse is dead.

Often because it is cheaper an faster most vets use a drug that stops the heart. I had a boarder use this method. I was holding the horse. The fear and pain in the horses eye still gives me nightmares. It is so bad that the horse flips over backwards!

I will never allow that method to be used on one of my animals. I have called a neighbor to shot them. The horse is calmly standing one second and dead the next.

This method of culling a bird sounds fast and painless too. I am glad the OP was brave enough to post this.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

A.J.'s :

I took it to the garbage can and with a pair of very sharp scissors I quickly with one quick clip, took its head off. There was no crying, there was no suffering. I just quickly ended this battle of life and death and the back breaking battle to help it live. Instead I helped it die. And Im proud of me.
What do you think?

I dont think its a case of being proud or ashamed, its more a case of being selfish or not. Were you selfish enough to make the animal suffer through a painful existence, probably not. Were you unselfish enough to do the right thing, and allow the animal the opporunity to NOT live in pain and suffering, probably so. If more people were as unselfish as yourself, then there would be a lot less animal cruelty in the world....​

 

[A.J.'s]

Thank you for your kind replies and to the one that didnt understand... you will.. if you live long enough. I remember being so angry at my grandpa for his acts that I know now were kindness..
Its hard to live and not learn. But some of us do it.

A vet assistant told me how he does the deed with no pain. He inserts a hyperdermic needle into a big vein and then removes the plunger, letting the animal bleed out. He even saves the blood for fertlizer, tho Idont now how he uses it. On a small animal that would work, but not on ..say a horse or cow..
the animal just goes to sleep. gently.