What is a humane way to kill a suffering bird?

Question

What is a humane way to kill a suffering bird?

Answer 1

Just step on him fast and hard!

Answer 2

Jesus Christ- soak your sick self in water, climb in a freezer, tell us how YOU feel before you die!

$35 for a trip to the vet for gas.  Be kind.  Euthanize, don't improvise.

Answer 3

Whatever it is, do it very quickly.

Answer 4

put it in the freezer.  they just fall asleep.

Answer 5

VET for humane euthanization

Answer 6

The best thing to do a suffering bird is take it to an avian shelter; they rehab and (if possible) rehome the bird to good homes, or provide a life-long shelter for it at their facility if you request. Visit www.avianwelfare.org to find the shelter nearest to you. If you're 100% sure you want to get it euthanized (humane killing), then only have a qualified vet do it -- but I'm against euthanasia until there are other options available.

Answer 7

take him to a vet so he can go painlesly, and knowing you did what was best, it'll have u both feeling good. don't kill him, that's the very worse.

Answer 8

vets do euthenize birds.

i saw a pigeon in NYC once that was really sick. he was flipping about on the ground and didn't seem to be getting better. after a while of watching him wondering what to do i put my foot on his head. his chest rose and fell 3 times and then he was dead. i kept my foot on him for a few more sec to be sure but he wasn't moving and i let go. i think he suffocated. it was very fast.

(faster than driving the bird to a veet woudl be, plus it was a wild NYC bird)

(this is a really sick bird that you can just walk up to and put your foot on his head because they all fly away if you even try to touch them, they are so agile. this was a dying bird that was acting in huge agony, flipping about on the ground.)

Answer 9

Ironically I had to do just this yesterday.  I work in Parks and came across a fledgling grackle that had a severe head injury.  There was nothing that could be done to save the little bird.

Bringing it to a vet is not always an option, and for the length of time that it would take to bring such a small, suffering animal in I feel that it's more humane to kill it quickly on the spot than to put it through the stress of waiting and being handled for a 1/2 hour or more (by the time you contact a vet, or get it into your vehicle, drive to the vet, tell the vet what happened, gather the shots and finally administer it) just to die.  A  larger animal is harder, and so this might be the best option, but for a little bird, it is quite easy to put them out of their misery quickly and without undue suffering.

The trick is to commit to the action.  You will cause the bird undue pain and suffering if you begin an action but hesitate or stop.

Using my index, middle finger and thumb I pinch the airway off at the neck.  There will be an initial struggle (obviously), but the bird should lose consciousness very quickly.  With it cupped in your hand you will feel the lungs working for air.  Eventually they will give one final, larger heave before they stop.  I can't tell you exactly how long this takes - probably less than 10 seconds, but it seems like much longer.  The heart will continue to beat for another 5 to 10 seconds, then that too will stop.  I usually hold on for another 10 seconds or so, just to make sure.  In all it takes less than a minute.

I find this easiest to do, as well as the most humane.  Slightly quicker might be to snap the neck - grasp the head in one hand and the body in the other, then turn sharply all the way around like you're unscrewing a bottle cap.  This must be sharp and sudden, because if you don't commit to it you're only going to injure the bird further.  I can't bring myself to do it this way because I am so worried that I might do it wrong, and bird's have such flexible necks that they can turn pretty far around before reaching the point of breaking, so I find strangulation to be easier, and still pretty quick.

It can be hard to do, but it's better to kill a suffering animal quickly than to leave it to die a drawn out, painful death.

Answer 10

take it to the vet and get it humanely euthanized

Answer 11

Take it to a vet, where it can be humanely euthanized. Any method of trying to do it yourself (such as freezing which IS a horrible way for anything to die) could very well prolong the suffering.