Hand tool for removing ticks from animals

Claim 1

A hand tool for removing ticks from the skins of live animals, comprising: a pair of elongated swingably-connected arms (14, 16) having free ends, and opposed hand grip sections adapted to be manually squeezed to bring the free ends together; the free ends of said arms being configured as opposed hollow three dimensional cup sections (20, 22) adapted to cooperatively encircle the body of a tick protruding from the skin of an animal; each said cup section being formed of a dielectric material having thermal insulating properties, each cup section having an essentially flat circumferential edge (24) adapted to mate to a circumferential edge on the other cup section when the cup sections are brought together; each cup section having an external end surface (32) adapted to contact the skin of an animal, and a notch (36) formed in the circumferential edge of each cup section at the associated end surface so that the two notches form a single opening adapted to cooperatively encircle a portion of a tick embedded in the animal's skin; an electrical heater element mounted within each cup section to radiate heat onto an encircled tick; each heater element being configured as a semi-circular band extending along the interior surface of the associated cup section, with the plane of each semi-circle extending transverse to the length dimension of the associated arm (14, 16); said semi-circular bands having confronting outturned edges (54) adapted to engage each other to complete an energizing circuit through the bands only when the cup sections are brought and means for supplying current to the semi-circular heating elements, said current supplying means comprising an electrical conductor extending along each elongated arm, onto an external surface of the associated cup section, and an electrical connection (42) between each conductor and the associated semi-circular band.