That is the hamster, the daughter is 11.
Total anecdote but I know someone that had an elderly chihuahua and it developed a bit of a wheeze, which bothered them so they took it to the vet. Somehow communication got garbled and the vet heard not breathing, so they were carrying their dog in the door when they were met with an aggressive vet and two nurses grabbing the dog from them and rushing it to an exam room, the dog totally panicked and had to be restrained and started shaking then just went stiff and collapsed.
The vet said it seemed to be a heart attack, vets are very stressful for animals.
I don’t have any new suggestions, except that death by crushing is very quick if done “right”. Unfortunately I know this from witnessing my brother dispatch a mouse he caught in the silverware drawer. He got it into a plastic bag, took it outside to the walkway, and dropped a large flat flagstone on it. The mouse doubtless felt pain but only for a split second.
I don’t necessarily recommend this approach, but it is an option - and has the advantage of being almost hands-off (the shovel / meat cleaver option has the risk of missing).
I don’t advocate lying to children but in this case, if you opt for a messy home procedure, “Fluffy escaped while you were at school” is a possibility.
There seems to be some disagreement as to whether hamsters truly hibernate.
http://www.britishhamsterassociation.org.uk/get_article.php?fname=journal/hibernation.html
http://lacrimahamstery.blog.com/2011/07/16/the-hibernating-hamster/
Definitely old enough to hold a shovel.
D’oh! :smack:
No kidding. This is really getting ridiculous.
I admit, that made me laugh.
Not recommending it, but for a fraction of the vet euthanasia price you could buy enough heroin to kill hampy and his entire family, mixing it into some peanut butter.
Buy heroin to kill a rodent.
Hoo boy!:smack:
“How to euthanize a hamster” is turning into a Rube Goldberg machine.
Hibernation works for reptiles, because they’re cold-blooded. Not for mammals.
You use the heroin to bribe a junkie into killing the hamster of course!
Anyway the easiest and arguably most humane method would be putting the hampster in a loose paper bag and giving it a fast sharp blow against a brick wall or concrete surface, ensuring it is hard enough. Bury or cremate as is, no need to view the gore.
Take it with you on Amtrak from LA to Chicago in January.
They made me put it in the mail car. No problem they said. When I arrived in Chicago the poor guy was frozen solid. (They left the door open in -20 degree weather in Dodge City.)
I guess they don’t teach cervical dislocation in vet school. When my wife was in grad school, in biology, she got quite skilled at offing rats using this method.
Hey, I found this interesting, um, style manual on how to euthanize lab animals; I found it because I was wondering how much potassium or nicotine would dispatch the poor little guy.
Notable bits: They don’t recommend regular freezing for rodents. Or really anything available to the OP other than a blow to the head, decapitation, or breaking its neck. Oh, and carbon dioxide at concentrations over .7.
Also of note, O/T: They describe maceration by machine for chicks, with the caveat “Under no circumstances should domestic appliances be used.”:eek: And they recommend anesthesia for rabbit fetuses…
Although they don’t go into a true hibernation state, they to into a torpor state which is similar.
Strange they don’t even do that for human fetuses.
I still wouldn’t do it with a hamster, since they’re not reptiles. Mammals=warm blooded, reptiles=cold blooded.
I have firsrthand knowledge that a garbage disposal works adequately for small snakes :eek: :mad:
Yeah, same brother as with the mouse.
I was about 12. The parents were away at a conference and we had a sitter staying with us. I went down to the basement and saw what I thought was a coil of extension cord wire on the floor, but when I went to pick it up, it moved. My brother, being the closest thing to a Big Strong Manly Man (he was 15 or 16) was called.
He scooped it up in a box, and later told us what he’d done with it. I thought he’d just dumped it outdoors. Egad. Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s a psychopath. We don’t keep in contact any more.
Oh, and I guess the above (chicks) will not be starring in a BlendTec “Will It Blend” video, unless they use the industrial model. Of course, “chick”??? what the hell?
I’ll bet that made one hell of a mess. Not to mention the stench.
The snake? not that I recall - it really was a small snake, no thicker than a heavy-duty electrical cord and certainly less than 2 feet long. [del] The psychopath[/del] My brother evidently ran enough water down the disposal that there was no smell (if there would have been any - I mean, does snake smell worse than, say, hamburger? Live snakes certainly smell better than live cows!!) and the mess would have been contained by the fact that it was a style where you had to put the plug over the disposal and turn it to make it work.
Or maybe he just dumped the un-macerated snake outside and TOLD us he put it in the disposal - but his personality is such that I found (and still do) it utterly plausible.
Could the mouse have felt pain? Or would a large flagstone dropped from hand-held height essentially crush the entire mouse before it would have a chance to register pain? I hope the latter is the case…
Is this thing dead yet? If not, I think the OP is obligated to go ahead and off the little bugger. We need some resolution here.