How to humanely finish off a trapped mouse
When a mouse is still alive and suffering in a snap trap, people freeze because they do not know a quick, humane way to end its misery. This uncertainty leaves the animal to suffer and leaves the person feeling horrible about the ordeal.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Stomping on it with a sturdy boot
- 2wrapping the injured animal in a dryer sheet and placing it in a trash bag to let it succumb to its wounds
- 3putting the animal in a plastic bag and using a blunt object to smash it
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It still jumped around a little while I decided what to do. So what is a good, humane (as possible) way to dispatch a mouse without letting it suffer in a trap?”source ↗
“I asked if there was any way to kill it without a trap or something, and he said there wasn’t. So I wrapped it in a dryer sheet, put it in a trash bag, and took it out to the bin.”source ↗
“The entire time, I felt horrible. I wish I could have put it out of its misery, but I have no idea how I could have done that.”source ↗
“What could I have done differently?”source ↗