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Head in my hand to twist its neck but I couldn’t finish it off despite knowing it was the ‘right’ thing to do - still there now
Don't bust it's neck - take a spade out and whack it right hard. Like properly hard. Then scrape into bin.
Put it in a bag then whack it.
I would take a spade to the neck. Twisting a bird's neck round is not a good idea as they're designed to twist a good way round. Either pull the neck away from the body to break it (potentially quite grim) or just use a spade. Either way you break the neck instantly for a humane kill.
Came here to say "spade", though zippy may be right with bag+spade
Went out with a plastic bag with the intention of ****ting its head with a heavy object with it in said bag. I was too late.
It was only a sky rat but not nice seeing it gasp for air.
When we had a cat he’d bring half dead birds and mice back as ‘gifts’ and often I’d have to end their misery early which was never nice. I seem to have lost my touch.
Either pull the neck away from the body to break it (potentially quite grim)
When I was fairly young, 10 or 12 maybe, I can remember dad spotting an injured pigeon as we drove down a road. He had no hesitation pulling its head off, which did the deed instantly. The 1920s generation were tougher about this sort of thing, probably from having chickens when he was a lad.
We keep chickens and I occasionally have to euthanise a bird that is very ill or suffering at the end of life. This is unfortunately part and parcel of poultry keeping. Swiftly breaking the neck vertebrae is effective but requires a very particular technique, delivered with skill and confidence. It would be very easy to mess it up and cause more suffering. I used to beat and shoot on pheasant shoots. I practiced many times on dead pheasants whose anatomy is near identical to a chicken before I ever did it for real.
I also used to shoot wood pigeons for crop protection on arable farms and occasionally had to despatch a wounded bird. All the birds I shot were eaten by me or others. The same technique does not lend itself to pigeons. You will inevitably pull the head off which sort of solves the "problem", but can be a bit upsetting to you and anyone witnessing it. I used to use a fishing style "priest". Any suitably heavy tool or rock would do in a pinch.
Be quick, decisive and forceful. In my opinion, not taking swift action to end a badly injured animal's suffering if you have the means and ability to do so is very wrong.
There is some useful info on the humane slaughter association faq page
Me and a mate were on a night ride waiting to cross a road with a car coming when a bunny hopped out in front of us and the car went over it, but seemed to only catch its back legs. It screamed and was trying to drag itself away and it was obvious what needed doing. I said to my mate 'we can't leave it like that' and he delivered a killer line back. 'You're right. I'll hold your bike'
I picked it up with the intent to pull its neck and then realised I'd never done that before and had no idea what to ACTUALLY do. And faced with underdoing it and hurting it more, or overdoing it and having two halves of a rabbit while stood on a country road in the middle of the night, at which point inevitably a car would come and the anti-devil worshipping police called or something..... I figured the best thing was a firm grip, hard swing, and smash its head on the bridleway post. It seemed to do the trick.
No death by Um Bongo?
We had a rat behind the fridge. I had the air pistol ready and pulled out the fridge from the wall to get a shot. Winged it, reloaded (slow process with an air pistol) and winged it again. Family were ready with big old welder's gloves. Out came the fridge and ratty was scooped into a Tesco bag. Swinging hard onto the patio step was the coup de gras.
I had mentioned to my son that it might be messy and unpleasant but he was keen to learn in case he ever had to deal with a similar situation.
BITD, as a teenager dealing with rabbits with myxamatosis was commonplace. Generally a swing of the back legs onto something solid. Not a nice thing to do but when growing up in rural East Anglia you'd be confronted by diseased rabbits regularly.
Is myxamatosis still around?
I use a spade for the half-deads. Quick and effective. A priest would work too and be more precise but a spade is more often to hand.
I haven't dealt with poultry so don't know the hand/neck techniques so stick with the quick and effective spade.
A priest would work too
With the added bonus that they could then exorcise the pigeon spirit would no doubt haunt you afterwards....
The term priest for such a tool is from the idea of administering the last rites.
Picture the scene. I'm on foot in uniform in Huddersfield town centre when a town hall pigeon is struck by a van and falls into the road. I immediately stepped out and picked it up, noting it was beyond help, and with a quick twist of my gloved hands removed it's head, and popped it into the nearest bin. As I walked on, picking the last few bits of gore and feathers off my gloves I heard a bit of a fuss behind me, and turned to find a mother and primary school aged child had witnessed the whole thing. Whoops.
Killing anything is NOT to be taken lightly. Anyone who makes light of it is to be distrusted IMHO.
I've done it a few times, I worked on a Farm as a kid, but it is not nice and you will think about it long after you've done the deed.
OP: don't be too hard on yourself 👍
The term priest for such a tool is from the idea of administering the last rites.
Picture the scene. I'm on foot in uniform in Huddersfield town centre when a town hall pigeon is struck by a van and falls into the road. I immediately stepped out and picked it up, noting it was beyond help, and with a quick twist of my gloved hands removed it's head, and popped it into the nearest bin. As I walked on, picking the last few bits of gore and feathers off my gloves I heard a bit of a fuss behind me, and turned to find a mother and primary school aged child had witnessed the whole thing. Whoops.
The local council were quite happy for dead animals to be chucked over the gate into their yard rather than being called out at 3am for disposal (1980s).
We used to bag them up, but goodness knows what the residents opposite thought if ever they saw the cops heaving a bag over the gate. H&S would have a fit today
Another 3am job was the occasional deer being butchered by a truck on the motorway; the trucks then were a lot more solid than they are now and didn't usually stop. I had to drag one carcase across three lanes on my own because it was "looking" at my crewmate through open eyes. The local maintenance contractors picked them up
The way I was taught for our chickens was to rest a broom handle/similar size rod gently across their necks while they were on the floor, put your foot carefully onto one end to keep it in place, then bring the other foot down firmly on the other side of the neck, and your weight down on the whole thing.
It works, the head stayed in place but they obviously went instantly... I never enjoyed it, but I am the only one here who could/will do it at all, so it was always my job.
A local cat got a pigeon on our neighbours drive - broken wings and a bit of a mess but still trying to flap about. I couldn’t leave the thing to suffer so had to go out with shovel and do the deed - in full view of the neighbours Ring camera who were on holiday at the time. I had to send them a message explaining why I was killing a pigeon on their drive. The despatching process seemed to dislodge a lot of feathers which took way too long to clean up….
Killing anything is NOT to be taken lightly. Anyone who makes light of it is to be distrusted IMHO.
Indeed. Many people are always happy to eat meat, but want others to do the killing for them. I grew up where everybody kept hens, and it was a fact of life that when they stopped laying they went into the pot. If you hatched a clutch of eggs you waited until the males were old enough and they became Sunday lunch. Any ex-layers became boiling fowl and created a great meal plus lots and lots of nourishing tasty soup. Thing was, you respected the animal you were killing, and made sure it was all swift and humane. In this detached world we have become squeamish with a massive dose of mis-placed sentimentality, and prefer to let others do the killing for us.
Had this a couple of years ago, a juvenile starling, hit the kitchen window. My daughter who was 6 at the time found it in the garden.
Sometimes when this happens they are just stunned and half an hour in a shoebox in a quiet corner of the house sees them recover. But i was pretty certain that this wasn't the case this time, the poor thing was clearly all sorts of broken. I put it in a shoebox and went to my thinking room (the toilet) to contemplate how i was going to dispatch the poor bugger.
Anyway by the time I emerged the bird now had a name "Peggy" My wife called the SSPCA and to their credit they actually came out fairly quickly and a very nice lady thanked my daughter for looking after Peggy and they would take it from here. She took Peggy away in the shoe box and I like to think that the bird is now living a happy life flying around somewhere.
Had this a couple of years ago, a juvenile starling, hit the kitchen window. My daughter who was 6 at the time found it in the garden.
Sometimes when this happens they are just stunned and half an hour in a shoebox in a quiet corner of the house sees them recover. But i was pretty certain that this wasn't the case this time, the poor thing was clearly all sorts of broken. I put it in a shoebox and went to my thinking room (the toilet) to contemplate how i was going to dispatch the poor bugger.
Anyway by the time I emerged the bird now had a name "Peggy" My wife called the SSPCA and to their credit they actually came out fairly quickly and a very nice lady thanked my daughter for looking after Peggy and they would take it from here. She took Peggy away in the shoe box and I like to think that the bird is now living a happy life flying around somewhere.