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[Economic Snake]

I recently broke into the cavern layer and began (after a few catastrophes involving cave crocodiles and chickens) making traps. The first trap a monster would need to pass to get to my fortress is a cage trap, so after a little while I began catching things, first a helmet snake, then a toad, then a troll. So the snake and the toad are all good, I can just tame them so that's all fine and dandy, but what about the troll, I don't know of any good uses for them, and what the best way to dispose of this nuisance would be. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
EcoSnake

[《monty》]

I usually dispose of them by putting them in a room with a new military squad - lets them get a bit of experience and exposure to death (it is truly horrifying).

[Economic Snake]

Sounds fun. I'll give it a try!

[anewaname]

If the cages are not magma-safe, you can Dump the cage into magma (from a safe height), and after the cage burns, the troll will too.

[Economic Snake]

I have not reached the magma sea yet, but when I do, I'll try that.

[FantasticDorf]

Cages (the whole thing) compact pretty well in atom crushers even if the creature in question usually can't be crushed, so quickly transfer them to a cheap wooden cage, dump them in your atomiser and wave au revoir to your undesirables if they aren't worth wasting the squads on or you already have some exhibits of them for dwarves to gawp at in jeweled precious metal cages.

[Enemy post]

Personally, I'd either put them in a zoo, chuck them in lava, crush them, or let the military get a bit of training out of them.

*Oh hey, I just thought of something. Why not capture some more monsters and make a little arena to watch them fight?

[PatrikLundell]

Some players may like blood "sports", but dorfs don't. They don't like seeing sapients die, nor their bodies (although hostiles have less of an impact after the latest balancing).
You also run the risk that your unwilling gladiators may be unwilling to fight, having them camping out in the arena instead (blocking one migrant group (out of a maximum two, FBs not included) in the cavern they came from.

[Economic Snake]

I never knew there were so many ways to kill a dumb old troll. I personally like the military training option, but I'll certainly have some fun trying the others out. Thanks for all the replies!
EcoSnake

[Iduno]

Doesn't hauling the cage leave the creature to wander free (you haul only the cage, not the contents)? Or has that been fixed?

[PatrikLundell]

The only normal case where the a creature is removed from a cage when the cage is to be hauled is when you're hauling the cage to be sold off. The reason non tame creatures are removed from the cage is that they cannot be sold (of course, the critters could be released in the trade depot instead, but that's not how it was implemented), and is intentional rather than a bug. In other cases cages are hauled with their contents (which is how cage trap cages move their cages with the captives inside to the "animal" stockpile).

[Superdorf]

I never knew there were so many ways to kill a dumb old troll. I personally like the military training option, but I'll certainly have some fun trying the others out. Thanks for all the replies!
EcoSnake

This is Bay12. Inventing ever more complicated ways to kill our enemies is what we do here. 

[Urist9876]

DFWiki also lists the possibility of shotgunning cages. Doesn't work reliably on flying creatures.

In the simplest form: load the cage trap into a minecart. Push the minecart down on a track of at least 5 ramps down for enough speed.
Have it collide with a {minecart} on end of track. After end have fortification. Cage flies through fortification.
1 tile of open-air-space next with pit under follows. Then wall where the cage will smash against and make the contents drop in tile before.

In the pit install your prefered disposal method: automated spikes, weapontraps, magma, arena, fortifications with archers, minecart shotguns with anvils or lead minecart crushers to just name a few options. Or all of those if you don't want to choose.