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Best fish euthanasia method

Edvet said:
(Actually, if done properly, shooting a dog in the head could be as humane as euthanasia)
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Do you think ed? ? I know its slightly off topic but surely being put to sleep is a nicer way than getting shot lol. No pain felt even for a second or two...... 😕
 
Going out for a walk and then suddenly "bang", life is over? I wouldn't mind that (that's why i dont mind hunting in general). Euthanasia is a good way to go, but there can be a slight stress involved, going to the clinic, getting an aneasthesiashot, not huge but not totally absent either. I don't condone they way dogracers treat their dogs btw, the comment was about the shot.
 
I've got pretty small fish, only had to do this with an oto and and a young three spotted gourami but I stick them in a small tub and put them in the freezer, 10 minutes later dead fish.

I would probably use the hammer method if my lass didn't think it was cruel.
 
Personally I put the fish in a small containder with tank water mixed with clove oil (10 drops or so), sends them into a deep sleep which they do not recover from. I check on the container over several hours, usually leave overnight before disposal, just to make sure the fish has actually gone.
 
Yeah, the freezer method is generally regarded as a bad way to go on most euthanasia threads I've seen in the past, slowly freezing to death sounds like a horrible way to go. Being cold blooded doesn't meant they can't feel it! (that's usually the reasoning given )

The brick/blunt trauma seems a safer and potentially less cruel method than clove oil or anything else to me because I don't believe we have any way of quantifying how a fish actually feels when it's being euthanised . Clove oil could be an unimaginably painful experience for the fish, even though it doesn't look like it.

Until we invent fish communicators and can ask the fish what they prefer, I'll opt for the quickest way! Given the choice between of being immersed in toxic oil in a tub outside the tank for minutes that may or may not be painful, or being instantly crushed by a giant brick, I'd pick the brick!



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This crops up on various fishy forums from time to time including this one Sick Gourami - Help! | UK Aquatic Plant Society I think overall overdosing anaesthetic (acetone) is usually considered the most humane way to dispatch a fish. I know from experience that its a favourite with the wholesale tropical fish industry, but perhaps more for convenience than anything else. However, it's also the method that we find most palatable so it always gets more votes; which doesn't necessarily make it the most humane in actual fact. Brain destruction is probably the most humane...or rather a combination of both anaesthetic overdose, and then brain destruction, as described in Nathan Hill's PFK article linked earlier in this thread.
 
I read that adding vodka after anaesthetising with clove oil does this. Must be vodka or same type of alcohol though.
 
Meat cleaver and off with their head's.
Have also in the past froze em. Seem's much more humane than lot's of other stuff we subject them to.
 
James O said:
You shot a 4-5cm fish swimming in a little water and got a clean kill shot to the head?
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Well I can shoot flies off a manure-smeared board at 10m (which is an actual target practise technique, not some weird thing I made up), so shooting a half dead fish from point-blank isn't too taxing.

Alastair said:
Just seems very very wrong to me and something that's more entertainment than quickly putting a fish out of its misery.
What made you think of that in the first place??
Im not purposefully trying to have a go or anything ben as im not like that but I found that a little disturbing if im honest and reckon im not the only one. 🙁

Its like the people who owned racing grey hounds that when theyd stopped being able to run and were getting on, they'd take them out to a field and shoot them instead of putting them to sleep 😱
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Well I've done pest control in the past, shooting rabbits, crows, pigeons etc, so shooting an animal to kill it seems like quite a logical thing TBH. I totally disagree with killing greyhounds that can't race any more, however it's done, but shooting animals is used as a method of euthanasia all of the time. For example, on many farms, if an animal is ill and needs to be put to sleep, will the farmer pay large vet bills, or will he go for his shotgun? I've seen many occasions where farmers have shot sheep, pigs etc because it's cheaper than calling the vet out. And racehorses are often shot by a vet if they are injured. And I've also been told by a vet that especially in small rodents and lizards decapitating or breaking the neck of an animal is a valid method of euthanasia, although not frequently practised.

I'm sure you don't mean to have a go Alastair, and it probably does seem a bit disturbing to someone who maybe doesn't live in the countryside like I do? But to me, shooting a fish seems much more humane than putting it in the freezer to die slowly and possibly painfully?

Cheers,
Ben
 
Can see this thread deteriorating.
Just choose a method and get it done. Ain't everybody gonna be agreeable to the method chosen.
Can say I don't recommend shooting fish in a barrel.
"You'll shoot your eye out!! "
 
Just need to make sure people realise they need to pith (destroy brain) after decapitation as the head can remain alive for several minutes after removal.
 
Motile animals have a nervous system that enables them to respond to undesirable situations. A fish in pain will usually exhibit physical signs of distress, even in a weakened state. It is true we do not know everything about the subject, but the properties of anaesthetics are not to my knowledge associated with inflicting pain, rather the numbing of it. Clove oil is also used to mildly sedate fish when treating wounds and ulcers.
 
brumbird said:
Just need to make sure people realise they need to pith (destroy brain) after decapitation as the head can remain alive for several minutes after removal.
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I believe that pithing has to be done before decapitation...

And that's why I just can't use this method. I'm not confident that I could bang a fish on the head, pith then decapitate properly causing no pain or trauma.
Using a brick to crush would certainly be easier, but I couldn't do that either!
 
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