I’ve stumbled across videos on YouTube that show snake owners feeding them a live rate or rabbit or whatever. Some people in the comments say well that’s just nature, others say it’s animal abuse. What do you think?
On reddit I saw a snake owner saying what they normally do is kill the prey beforehand with a CO2 chamber and freeze it, and that there’s no reason to feed live. Like the snakes don’t need it. If that’s true I guess it’s needless suffering then. Weird that these videos are so available on YouTube then.
That’s a horrible way to die. When you feel like suffocating it’s not lack of oxygen but excess carbon dioxide. Breathing in pure CO2 causes instant panic attack on even people with a brain damage making them unable to feel fear. Nitrogen is the gas you want to use - CO2 is among the worst possible choices. Even drowning them would probably be more humane.
In humans, it’s blood co2 levels that moderate our breathing. We don’t feel the lack of oxygen we feel the buildup of co2. A hammer would be more humane if rodents use the same chemo receptors.
So you’re saying it’s like the lethal injection? Not actually a peaceful way to die but just looks so to outsiders?
CO2 poisoning does not look peaceful to outsiders
Yeah, I worked in a biology lab that regrettably used co2 for euthanizing mice. They would struggle, and begin to thrash uncontrollably as they ran out of oxygen, then they would slow down until they are just barely twitching before all movement completely ceases. It’s a disgusting way to die.
In the case of CO2 asphyxiation, it doesn’t even appear peaceful to an outside observer. There are videos online showing what it actually looks like, and it’s not pretty.
Rodents burrow. Unlike humans, they detect low oxygen environments, so even inert gas asphyxiation is painful for them.