Perhaps a stupid question, but ...
For squirrels caught in the squirelinator who do not die from stress, what is the humane way to deal with them? Relocating them a few miles away is one option, but I’d be interested in something which ... requires less gasoline. But I wouldn’t want to be a monster.
if you’re going to catch-release ground squirrels check your local and state laws. Some say min of 5 miles away some say no dumping live squirrels anywhere.
The most humane way is a BB air pistol or kid’s Daisy bbgun behind the ear or at the base of the skull/spine. Use a stick through the cage to nudge the critter into a corner and hold it down if it’s not fear-frozen already. And use eye protection since you’ll be shooting at close range. Or, you can dunk the cage in a water barrel and come back in 30 minutes. They drown pretty fast. After finding a drowned one vertical in the corral water barrel (he couldn’t climb the wet surface) we figured drowning must be pretty terrifying so we prefer the bb’s. One shot (hopefully), one kill, one second.
And if you’re feeling squeamish about the above, just remember that hawks, owls and ravens eat them alive and so do rattlers, boas and feral cats, which we also have our fair share of, so a quick death really is the most humane.
3-5 miles is NOT far enough to relocate them.
>>When we hit the 5-7 mile range, using a zig-zag pattern, returns were rare, maybe 1 out of 15-20. We did have squirrels return from as many as 10-12 miles, but less than a half-dozen times. Even stranger, we had one amazing return from almost 25 miles, although HE was taken on a straight-line run out a county road adjacent to our office. We never tried our relocation plan in the winter, I doubt if any of them would return.<<
http://unexco.com/popups/release.html