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I wasn’t sure I could do it either before I got Jasper, my first corn snake – but then again, how is it different to own a cat who eats animals (whether or not they’re ground up and combined with wholly biologically-inappropriate grains for kibble or not) than to own a snake or lizard?
I’m just more aware of exactly what dies in order to feed my reptiles than most people who keep carnivorous pets are… in fact, I do breed about half of the mice I feed to my snakes and hope to be wholly self-sufficient once I can get a colony of Natal rats and my colony of Dubia roaches going.
I guess I just do not want to feel like the one doing the killing. I know it’s the way of the world and mother nature but when you are the one responsible for the killing it changes things for me.
That is actually WHY I raise my own mice.
If I know how they lived – from birth until humane death – and I know tht I did everything I could to make their deaths as painless and stress-free as possible – then it makes me feel better about owning something that requires another animal to die in order to feed it.
I might be the one who does the killing, but at least I know that they are not in pain or stress at the end.
When I was very young my Dad brought 2 mice home from work – Pete and Repete and she did! So we had mice from when I was 3 or 4 years old. As I got older I branched out into rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and rats (which, by the way, are GREAT pets if you can get passed the tail) so I just could never face feeding one to a snake. In fact, I got some of my rats by telling my Mom “but if I don’t take her someone will feed her to a snake and you wouldn’t want her death on your conscious, would you?” (I was completely evil)
And I do know that I am inconsistent. I love fish but I won’t eat lobster because they are thrown alive into boiling hot water. So my friends always say to me “but it’s ok for a fish to suffocate on the deck of a ship.” I don’t eat red meat or pork but I will eat chicken and turkey – the term is beady eyed vegetarian. And I wear leather. And I have cats and a dog but I don’t have to kill their food. Probably the ultimate is I get live cut Christmas trees but I can’t go to a farm and kill the tree myself. So I know I am inconsistent – it is ok for other people to do it just as long I don’t. But I figure I don’t preach to people except about the lobsters. When I go to a restaraunt with my friends and one of them orders lobster I make a high pitched screaming sound – it’s a wonder they go anywhere with me.
Ssthisto wrote:That is actually WHY I raise my own mice.
If I know how they lived – from birth until humane death – and I know tht I did everything I could to make their deaths as painless and stress-free as possible – then it makes me feel better about owning something that requires another animal to die in order to feed it.
I might be the one who does the killing, but at least I know that they are not in pain or stress at the end.
And, hey, the snake has to eat too! I think it is great that you take care of the mice yourself. I think snakes are great and certainly deserve a good life.
Did you ever see the Seinfeld where he talks about you always root for the animal the nature documentary is about? If it’s about lions you root for the lion: run faster, get that impala. If it’s about the impala: quick, there’s a lion, run faster! Get away! I figure this is sort of like that. So I root for the bunny and you root for the snake. Fortunately it doesn’t look like either was badly hurt.
Go, bunny!
ddvm wrote:When I was very young my Dad brought 2 mice home from work – Pete and Repete and she did! So we had mice from when I was 3 or 4 years old. As I got older I branched out into rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and rats (which, by the way, are GREAT pets if you can get passed the tail) so I just could never face feeding one to a snake.
*chuckle* I actually have a favourite mouse in my breeding colony – Reprieve is a chocolate tan female who was originally slated to be ‘breakfast’ but her temperament was just so nice I wanted to see if it was hereditary. She jumps onto the top of their house and onto the rim of the cage to climb onto my hands when I go in to feed them, and is quite happy to sit on my shoulder.
She stays because she’s a “pet” as much as a breeder – and yes, some of her babies are as nice as she is.
I’m in consistant too but I do not think I coudl actually KILL anything except fleas, ants and roaches!!
My two cents’ worth – I live in a 100+ year old farmhouse and for the longest time we had a mouse problem in the house. They began to disappear from the downstairs area when the first dog arrived; I finally got the last one out of my room with a diabolo. I hate rodents. I’m not in the least afraid of them, but they’re filthy little beasts who deserve to be on the bottom of the food chain.
Hehehe…. we had one in our bathroom that used to crawl out of the toilet. It was NASTY!! They are snake food. 😈
I love rodents but if a wild mouse gets in and one of my cats kills it (not likely with most of my current kitties – a more spoiled bunch of “bow down before me and worship me you worthless human” you will never meet) I don’t yell at them. It is, after all, their nature. Circle of life and all that. I just don’t want the rodent blood on MY hands. I accidently ran over a squirrel a few years back (sorry, Mimi) and I had to pull over I was shaking so badly.
I just know mice cause an awful mess – whether its chewing open bags of horse feed or sugar or flour or whatever or leaving their droppings all over the place in the kitchen. So I’m not sorry to kill them, and the dogs always get praised up and down when they come out of the field with a mouse in their jaws. 👿
By the way, I re-read my previous post and it sounds like I don’t love my cats. I do – I just meant they aren’t hunters. They are the type to sleep under the covers and they prefer to drink out of a mug on the counter. God forbid I put the water in a bowl on the floor! How uncivilized! I admit – I have spoiled them shamefully but I figure that’s what cats are for.
My cats get spoiled too. I agree with the blood on the hands thing. My kids get everything they need except the ablility to run real fast fro a long period of time.
ddvm wrote:I love rodents but if a wild mouse gets in and one of my cats kills it (not likely with most of my current kitties – a more spoiled bunch of “bow down before me and worship me you worthless human” you will never meet) I don’t yell at them. It is, after all, their nature. Circle of life and all that. I just don’t want the rodent blood on MY hands. I accidently ran over a squirrel a few years back (sorry, Mimi) and I had to pull over I was shaking so badly.
Eeek! I think that would shake me up too…that’s never happened to me yet (hope it never does), but I feel a bit anxious whenever I see one near the road. Good thing most of them have the sense to stay off the road.
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