I gotta get one of these.
Rabbit exploding device proves popular
28 June 2005
By JILL GALLOWAY
New Zealanders are lapping up a new exploding rabbit-killing device, the Rodenator.
It has come out of the United States, where the underground gas exploder has been used to kill gophers, prairie dogs, squirrels, rats and even coyotes.
Now it is being put to use in New Zealand on rabbits.
Meyer Industries' Ed Meyer promoted the Rodenator at the National Agricultural Fieldays and said farmers and pest controllers had bought all he had available.
A video clip of the wand shooting gas canisters into rabbit burrows while the operator leaned back to avoid getting covered in dirt by the explosion attracted a lot of interest and more than a few exclamations.
"It's a device that injects a calibrated mixture of propane, liquid petroleum gas and oxygen, mixed together, down through the rabbit's burrow and it's ignited to produce a massive underground concussion bomb," Mr Meyer said.
It is probably the most humane way to kill an animal, causing a haemorrhage at the base of the spine and exploding the animal's lungs with the oxygen, he said.
"The guys here just love it. They want to see the rabbits flying out of the hole but unfortunately everything stays in the ground, but it is very well accepted here."
It was designed on Mr Meyer's family cattle ranch in the US to solve a problem they had, not designed to sell, and it just goes to show necessity is the mother of all invention, he said.
The death of rabbits is not covered by laws on humane animal killing because it is classed as a pest, but Mr Meyer said experiments showed the rabbits died instantly.
How cool is this??
