Not to take away from the chloroform recipes, but back to the gloves, what Eric mentions is one key aspect, folks think mesocarnivores (skunk, raccoon, coyote, fox) in terms of bite or breaking skin, they often forget their jaws are meant to crush bone, thus most gloves don't prevent this.
DaveK hits it on the head with the idea of using every other method possible to prevent the need to use hands, however nearly everyone on here at some point grabs something for a variety of reasons. I own two pair of the serious animal handler gloves (with the metal staples in them from WCS), however I have never used them, they are in the van in case I feel the need.
The times I consider using them are mostly adolescent squirrels stuck in pipes, but then dexterity comes into play, ie, can't fit massive gloved hand into pipe, and if I can I can't feel the squirrel, thus not used.
The main thing to consider is if you want the gloves for the cases where needed, go big in my opinion, if I need my crazy animal control gloves I have them and I don't guess what they will and won't do. If I'm buying work gloves for mesocarnivores I can prevent skin scratches and punctures, but not crushing.
When thinking of the possibilities for having your skin barrier broken by a species you work with you ultimately will benefit by any leather work glove of good quality, the higher you go up the chain, (welding glove, animal control gloves from WCS) the more protection you have, but less dexterity which is a trade off.
Bite Risks:
- saliva in bite wound (can happen even with leather, strong needle puncture lab type disposables are good under leather for this)
- basic scratches and non rabies type exposure, (cat scratches, dirt and other organisms fecal matter under nail beds), nothing to scoff at
- crushed nails, finger tips, broken bones (technically not many gloves can prevent this but they can reduce the possibility with smaller mesocarnivores, versus coyote and others with more pounds per square inch of bite force).
Just my .02, we have a variety of gloves for everything from simple bat handling to raccoon and coyote, even though the bulk of our work 99.9% I'm not putting hands on without other measure in place.
Justin
