Dispatching 'presents' humanely

[TravellingJack]

My beautiful tabby seems to have found a new lease of life in her late-middle age, coinciding with several neighbours having decking installed... she's been catching the odd little mouse (definitely mice, not rats) and leaving bits for us at the back door, but today she brought a live (barely) one in and dropped it at my feet while I was on a Teams call.

It was in no state to humanely do anything other than kill it, but I find this insanely difficult - they're tiny cute little creatures, pest or not, and I can't bear to see them suffer but equally find it SO hard to dispatch them. I remember my dad used to drown (had a waterbutt so easy to fill a pot quickly) or stamp on any gifts from my childhood moggy, but I can't bring myself to do that. I managed to see this one off quickly but it really upset me and ten minutes later I'm still reacting - a bit shaky and teary, over a mouse!

Can anyone please suggest a quick, easy and humane way to deal with these gifts, that isn't too traumatic for me too?

I'm sure some people will say 'keep your cat indoors' etc, but she's been an outdoor cat her whole life, she never roams further than our garden (especially as she's got older) and spends 90% of her time indoors in summer, and 99% in winter, and she uses an indoor litter tray, so I'm not going to suddenly stop her from sunbathing outside when the weather permits.

It’s such an awful feeling. I’m a coward I put them outside in a dark safe place with the reasoning that at least they can die with less fear.

I have this dilemma too. I put them outside but feel bad about it.

A friend's dad used to wrap them in newspaper and drop a brick on them.

Last mouse my cat bought in I wrapped in a tea towel, walked for 5 mins, and dispatched into a hedge at the edge of a field. Thought it must be dying (was deathly still), but it immediately bolted away, apparently fine.

I wouldn't kill them (hasn't occurred to me), although if they are injured we leave them for the Dcat and make her go back outside with them. We put them outside, and most of the time they bolt off into the undergrowth. The dead ones are left out for the kites - don't want a tasty mouse to go to waste.

Take them to your nearest vet. They have a duty of care to humanely put down fatally injured wild creatures. They did this when my cat badly mauled a wood pigeon, and did it for no charge. Give them a call first, obviously.

I heard that if you release them away from where they were caught they would die anyway because they don’t know where all the food sources are.

I did once put a mouse in a Tupperware box and drive it to the local allotments to release it. When I got there, there was a neat hole in the lid and no sign of the mouse. I never found it in the car.

Are any of them still alive and viable (albeit maybe injured)? You could leave a baited humane mouse trap or two in appropriate places.

That way, any that can reasonably survive will be able to get away to safety from your cat; then you can take them away to nearby woodland to set them free as soon as you have chance.

If they're already dead, you may as well just put them under a hedge or bury them to decompose.

If they're injured, clearly in a lot of pain and have obviously had it, then dropping a brick on them or sharply hitting them with a spade first - horrid as it sounds - is probably the only kind of realistic solution.

I read that as “Dispatching parents humanely”

😂

I let mine go in the woods...

Put in a plastic bag and bash hard with a brick. Must kill on first wallop. Much kinder than leaving to die a slow death

I bashed one with a coal shovel once. I was a teenager and my parents were out and I didn't know what to do 😥

It still upsets me now (in my 40s)

I'm not a psychopath I promise!

I feel for you @Poodley
A friend and I were talking recently about this time when we chopped a worm in half with a trowel, and how we are both still horrified. It was 50 years ago.

We’re in a new build estate over the road from a small established field/tiny wood… so it’s no surprise that some of the inhabitants have moved into all the nice new decking areas over the road, but makes catch and release feel a bit pointless as it’ll take them about 20min to come straight back.

There are loads of cats here too, but doesn’t seem to put the mice off! I’m resigned to this being part of outdoor cat ownership but just need some less traumatic way of disposing of any live gifts. Vet isn’t really feasible, there isn’t one within a 20min drive and I doubt a mouse caught by a cat would survive being handled and transported, and I’m not sure what our vet would say if I showed up with a nearly-dead mouse - I might phone up to ask their advice actually!

This is roughly what I did but with a kettlebell as nothing else big and heavy to hand 😭 Felt absolutely awful but was the best I could do on short notice.

I mean that’s not on the cards at the moment…

The main thing is that you’re aiming to end their suffering as quickly as possible without causing any more, so what you did was ok.

If you want something less graphic and you don’t mind getting close up, lay a pencil across the back of the neck and push down quickly and firmly, to break the neck, you may get some twitching afterwards but it’s just residual nerve signals, like the proverbial headless chicken.

I was at a bbq once and someone found an injured bird and another guest just wrung its neck, right in front of all the little kids. Harsh.