Originally Posted by
poppy42
There is only one way to insure A one shot kill in any animal. That is to take out the medulla oblongata ( brain stem). It is the part of the brain that controls all autonomic functions. Breathing heart beats and blood pressure etc. separate the brain from the brain stem and it is instant death in any animal. In man, The size Of the brain stem is somewhere between the size of a quarter And a 1/2 dollar. In a squirrel you can imagine it’s quite a bit smaller. It is entirely possible to take out a large portion of the brain and have an animal still have autonomic function. The thing is, even though the animal is breathing and his heart is still beating it’s basically brain dead. How many times have you seen in the news where a person has been shot in the head or received severe head trauma but still breathing and the heart is still pumping blood. It’s the same thing and all animals. The screeching heard was nothing more than an autonomic response. It was not in pain. the brain has no Nerve endings so it feels no pain. That’s why a lot of brain surgeries are done with the patient awake. The only thing that needs to be anesthetized is the scalp and the skull. The brain itself feels no pain.