First 2011 hatchling

[Thorgecko707]

WHAT!!?

I'm sorry you had that for your first hatchling, but please tell me that this is not your culling method!!?

I didn't drown it. The bath is to keep it. It died on it's own.

 

[lillith]

*phew* I hit the panic button, sorry.

 

[Thorgecko707]

*phew* I hit the panic button, sorry.

I was traumatized by having to cull once, a breeder told me to suffocate in a baggy. Well, it took a very long time, then it came back. I called the breeder and he said to fill the baggy with water and drown it. It didn't work very fast. I have a hard time watching animals suffer, by my hand is more agonizing. A safe and fast painless way is to put them in a container and soak cotton balls in denatured alcohol and drop them in and seal it. Culling is horrible either way.

 

[Wild West Reptile]

I was traumatized by having to cull once, a breeder told me to suffocate in a baggy. Well, it took a very long time, then it came back. I called the breeder and he said to fill the baggy with water and drown it. It didn't work very fast. I have a hard time watching animals suffer, by my hand is more agonizing. A safe and fast painless way is to put them in a container and soak cotton balls in denatured alcohol and drop them in and seal it. Culling is horrible either way.

Please tell us that you didn't really do all this crap. It's basically animal abuse.

 

[Thorgecko707]

Culling? My manager was fired for making me do it that way. I don't work there anymore, so I'll never have to put another LIVE animal in the freezer either.

 

[Thorgecko707]

And if you connect the dots on which store it was, I am in no way committing slander. I just don't agree will freezing, drowning, suffocating live animals. That's what controlled drugs or vets are for. I don't think someone making 8/hr should have the responsibility of doing such acts.

 

[LeoMerlin]

Oh my this is something I would not be able to do. Animals that are born are meant to live for a reason. If there are health issues, they should be taken to a vet! Sorry it just upsets me to hear something like this.

 

[robin]

I was traumatized by having to cull once, a breeder told me to suffocate in a baggy. Well, it took a very long time, then it came back. I called the breeder and he said to fill the baggy with water and drown it. It didn't work very fast. I have a hard time watching animals suffer, by my hand is more agonizing. A safe and fast painless way is to put them in a container and soak cotton balls in denatured alcohol and drop them in and seal it. Culling is horrible either way.

are you serious here? 0_0

 

[justindh1]

Culling? My manager was fired for making me do it that way. I don't work there anymore, so I'll never have to put another LIVE animal in the freezer either.

First you say a breeder told you to do it then you say that it's your manager that told you. Which one was it?

 

[RampantReptiles]

Oh my this is something I would not be able to do. Animals that are born are meant to live for a reason. If there are health issues, they should be taken to a vet! Sorry it just upsets me to hear something like this.

Umm if an animal is born without eye lids there is really not a lot a vet can do! In the wild I imagine a gecko in this condition would die fairly quickly or a predator would get them. In a captive environment these things dont normally occur and so it is the breeders responsibility to put it down quickly so it does not suffer.

 

[Thorgecko707]

First you say a breeder told you to do it then you say that it's your manager that told you. Which one was it?

The breeder the store got them from told the manager that was the way to do it. It didn't work so I called him and he said to drown it. I was told that night that there was nothing I could except stop working there and shopping there. A fellow employee and I didn't show up for work the next day. The assistant manager was fired and the store manager quit later on. That was almost six years ago. The store has gone downhill since. I have been to the others in Reno and sac, they are just as dirty and unkept, lacking all morals. I agree, a vet should do certain things. NOT kids still in highschool.

 

[robin]

I was told that night that there was nothing I could except stop working there and shopping there. A fellow employee and I didn't show up for work the next day. The assistant manager was fired and the store manager quit later on. .

for good reason

 

[lillith]

I still say alcohol is an inhumane method of culling.
You could at least have the decency to knock them over the head first.
Done correctly; it's the quickest, most painless way without drugs.

That does sound like an awful job experience, I'm glad you quit. Good on you and your co-worker!

 

[RampantReptiles]

You could at least have the decency to knock them over the head first.
Done correctly; it's the quickest, most painless way without drugs.

How do you knock a baby gecko over the head?
This method makes sense for rats and relatively large mice but would be difficult for small mice or a small creature like a baby leopard gecko.

 

[robin]

why dont ya just stick it in the fridge and then in the freezer *shrug*

 

[MemphisReptiles]

Why didn't you just keep it as a pet or adopt it out? The methods you used sound like touture to me.Sticking it in the freezer would have been your best bet . However I have seen geckos with eyelid deformaties live long active lives. I would not breed one with such problems but I definately would not murder it either ,unless it was in pain or couldn't eat.

 

[lillith]

How do you knock a baby gecko over the head?
This method makes sense for rats and relatively large mice but would be difficult for small mice or a small creature like a baby leopard gecko.

Same way you do a fish. Quickly, without hesitation.
Yes, it's awful. Yes, I hate it.
Yes it goes into the freezer afterward, to make sure death has occurred.

But I prefer that to the glassy-eyed but *aware* look I have seen from a pre-freezer, post-refrigerated gecko. All it took was once for me to think, "maybe I should do that differently." After the second time, I was sure I couldn't do it that way again.

I know culling is a really sensitive subject, but my experiences with it have led me to this method.
I first tried the home CO2 chamber method, and even with a completely sealed flow, my poor Pyra kept gasping for breath and it took nearly half an hour for her to succumb. It looked like watching her drown in air. I will never do that again. My second cull was the fridge-then-freezer method; as was my third. I could see them, their little eyes were open, yes they were in full torpor, but they were not dead, and putting them in the freezer in that state, it works, but it feels awful.

Blunt force to the head, is...well...blunt force.
It sounds awful, but I figure knocking them out quick and then freezing is slightly more humane than the other method. Or slow suffocation. I don't see much difference between CO2 and drowning from a physiological point-of-view. Suffocation by alcohol fumes sounds downright painful, it's not the way I'd want to go. I guess maybe I anthropomorphize a little too much, but if I were a gecko? I'd say knock my butt out cold, then put me down.

It's not something we talk about often. But I wanted to explain why I feel the way I do.

 

[geckoeyez]

Cool hatchling! Congrats!