LAWL Apparently we're all sadists.

[SpartaDog]

At least, according to this kid on my school bus. I asked him if he wanted to watch my snakes eat yesterday (I broadcast feeding on Livestream every weekend), and after a short conversation about how busy he was, he responded, "From your first comment, I thought you were a sadist." I asked him to explain himself, and he never answered.

I asked him again today, and the conversation went like this (these are all DIRECT quotes):
Me: Hey you.
Him: can't talk. busy.
Me: No no, you can take a minute to answer a question.
Him: uh, no, I can't, i'm extremely busy and you're not gonna tell me what i can and cannot waste my time on
Me: No. But YOU can't insult me and then not explain yourself. I let you get away with it last night. And how the hell is answering my question "wasting your time"? You're ruder than you admit.
Him: by calling you a sadist? get over yourself i was obviously kidding
though taking pleasure out of one species consuming another species live is sadistic
Me: Excuse me? I do NOT feed my snakes live prey, first of all. Second, I enjoy watching my snakes being snakes. I'm sorry.
Him: why did you want me to look at them than? sharing the consumption of a species with me?
Me: Third, snakes don't consume their prey live. They kill it first.
Him: that is sadistic, and you cannot deny that
Me: Yes, I can.
Him: whether they kill it or not, if you take pleasure out of it, it is sadism
Me: I thought maybe, seeing that you go to a biology school, you might enjoy seeing what an evolutionary wonder they are.
Him: i dont go to a biology school. I go to a mathematics, science, and technology school. of which those sciences are mainly environmental. not biological
Me: Biology falls under science, dear.
Him: dear?
Me: Yes, dear.
Him: whatever. nevertheless you thought wrong. and frankly i don't care if i offended you. whether i said im sorry or not your opinion of me would not change
Me: So next time, do yourself a favor. Say "Sorry, no thanks, that's not my thing" instead of calling me a sadist. Save yourself the trouble.
Well now, no, it won't. But if you hadn't said it in the first place, I'd think a hell of a lot higher of you.
Him: look, if you took serious offense to calling you a sadist, im sorry
maybe you shouldn't start off with something that clearly makes you sound like one. and just an fyi. i don't curse, have sex, do drugs, kill insects for the fun
i save them. im the person who goes around and saves them from the pool. im a devout catholic. community service is #1 in my life. well, #2 after God. there is nothing about me that makes me a bad person
Me: I did not say you were a bad person.
Him: and if something so insignificant like the joke i said last night bothers you and puts me on the same level as drug dealers, pot smokers, deliquants, and other sc*m, than you clearly have no sense of right or wrong
Me: Woah woah woah. When the hell did I compare you to drug dealers?
Him: you didn't but you said you thought less of me
Me: And I think a hell of a lot less of drug dealers.
Him: whatever. do you take pleasure in your snakes eating process? yes or no
Me: Yes. But not because I enjoy the rat's death. THAT would be sadism. I enjoy seeing the snakes doing what they were designed to do. The same way I would enjoy seeing birds fly.
Him: whatever. it is totally different
Me: It is not.
Him: it is. like i said you have WASTED my time. don't talk to me, i am busy
Me: No, it's not. Because I don't enjoy pit bulls tearing each other apart in a ring.
Him: "Want to watch snakes eat?" wanting someone to share in the same apparent euphoria that you felt about snakes eating. share it with someone else next time. i don't care about your snakes
Me: There are nicer ways to tell me that the first time.
Him: oh well, ill know for the next time someone is crazy enough to want to share that sort of thing with me
Me: What the hell? Why are you personally attacking me like this?
Btw, scum is not a curse. It's okay, you can type it out.
Him: it is ignorant, however
Me: What? That doesn't even make sense. Scum is a film found on the bottom of still bodies of water and a solid coating of soap found in bathtubs.
He never responded to that.

So yeah. It may be petty to post this here, but I wanted to ask you guys what you thought of this. Note, I've never had a legitimate problem with this kid before, but being the in-your-face, down-your-throat bible thumper he is, he thinks that I'm Satan incarnate or hellspawn or something because I'm an atheist. So he looks down on me (then again, he looks down on everyone who disagrees with him). I've done nothing but be nice to him ever since I met him, even tolerated him trying to convert me, but now, forget it.

Anyway, yep, all of us who watch our snakes eat, either out of fascination or to make sure they don't get hurt, we're all sadists now. Just thought I should let you guys know in case you want to see a therapist about it or something.

And PLEASE note, I have NO problem with Catholics or Catholicism or any other religious practice. This is not about religion or anything like that. It's about an ignorant individual insulting me for my fascination with a necessary part of nature.

I hope this doesn't get deleted, cuz I find it hilarious.

[Jeremy Browning]

Im not alone!!!! i've been dealing with people for a long time now including PETA who some how found out where i live and that i own reptiles and came to my doorstep telling me about how im cruel and when i closed the door on them they came back the next day ( i didnt even open the door ). and of course i've had fundementalistd say im sadistic too.

[Melody]

haha thats the kind of stuff my own mother says about me owning reptiles. Forget them i say. Herps rule! lol

[mommanessy247]

i'm sorry for this ramble but heres my

i was raised catholic and my mom has the "if your not catholic your evil and if its not a catholic church its bad." mentality. took her forever to deal with me choosing to leave the church when i moved out on my own at 18. now 12 yrs later and almost 3 yrs into me and my kids being presbyterians here in south carolina, my mom has finally accepted that we're in a good place cuz we've told her of all the good stuff going on and how we're active with church activities. she still doesnt understand why i left the church even though i've explained it numerous times.
i can say that i honestly believe, and someone of the faith correct me if my wrong here, that catholics hate snakes cuz the devil appeared as one in the bible and we all know he's the villain there.
i've not told my parents i own a snake cuz they'd have a cow about it and i dont wanna deal with that.
i'm sorry you had such a rough time with that guy but please understand that he is right on his point that you should take care of who you approach about the snake issue,especially the feeding topic, it's a very sensitive issue & some people are just not as enthusiastic about it and most of them cant help it if they've been taught that way.
no i'm not saying him calling you a sadist is right but i can also see how he thinks watching a snake eat is sadistic, it makes sense, though his way of expressing that wasnt very nice.
i watch my snake eat simply to make sure nothing bad happens since she eats live and it does pull at my heart a tiny bit to hear a rat scream. i wish i could feed f/t but my snake has refused freshly dead rats so i imagine she'll refuse f/t too. (i used to buy multiple rats for the month but because of the rats dying mysteriously i've been buying just 1 on feeding day).
i do not take pleasure in watching the rats die but i know my snake is not gonna go to the store for herself, lol. she depends on me to provide her meals and as a pet owner it is my responsibility to do that.
i got a "reaction" from my fellow classmates in sunday morning class. we were discussing how we thought prejudice was effecting our lives or those around us and i mentioned how i thought it was wrong how reptile owners are looked down on and to test them i revealed that i owned a snake. i heard the under the breath gasps and was like "really you guys? have i just jumped out from some secret closet? did i not look like a reptile owner? if i dare say so i've just been prejudiced, here just now, by you. i dont fit the profile so hopefully you see now that not all who own reptiles look like crazy people and that not all crazy people own reptiles. you cant mix zebras and horses in the same herd and say they are the same animal."
they thought about it for a second and then realized i was right and apologized for getting caught up in the moment with their automatic responses.

ok i'm done.

[Keyboard Warrior]

[mommanessy247]

very cute pic keyboard...

[JLC]

...and just an fyi. i don't curse, have sex, do drugs, kill insects for the fun
i save them. im the person who goes around and saves them from the pool. im a devout catholic. community service is #1 in my life. well, #2 after God. there is nothing about me that makes me a bad person

Heh...this is the part of the conversation that really made me roll my eyes and shake my head. Clearly the boy has missed the whole point of his own beliefs. But whatever. His problem, not mine.

I would have asked him if he took pleasure in eating hamburger or steak or chicken or fish. Wouldn't that make him sadistic? And if he claimed to be a vegetarian, I would have asked him how much pleasure he took from eating foods that resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent animals during its planting and harvesting. The self-righteous little.....twit...might never eat again.

[Quacking-Terror]

Heh...this is the part of the conversation that really made me roll my eyes and shake my head. Clearly the boy has missed the whole point of his own beliefs. But whatever. His problem, not mine.

I would have asked him if he took pleasure in eating hamburger or steak or chicken or fish. Wouldn't that make him sadistic? And if he claimed to be a vegetarian, I would have asked him how much pleasure he took from eating foods that resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent animals during its planting and harvesting. The self-righteous little.....twit...might never eat again.

Judy, you are my hero. I use that same argument on people. I have even said "I monitor my snakes killing their prey so I can make sure it happens quickly and safely. How many instances of slaughterhouses being inhumane have you seen? Want a hamburger?"

[karabear24]

Boy do I know how you feel.. Rick's (my husband above) aunt went completely off the deep end on us when she saw we had a snake, started literally preaching about it being a satanic animal. Wouldn't listen to a word we said and was getting really nasty about it.. I was in shock, course, I wasn't polite in my responses by the end of the discussion.. Some people are just rude and too thick headed to sway away from their ignorant beliefs.. (not implying her religious beliefs are ignorant here, just that her looking down and scolding us is ignorant, wanted to clear that up)

Circle of life, as my mom always says.

[CoolioTiffany]

It's hard to conversate with people who don't fully understand how us hobbyists are. I thought it was quite rude for him to talk down upon something that's vitally important to our snakes' well-being. It's one thing to disagree upon what another person does, but to talk down on you like he did is ignorant.

I completely understand if someone dislikes snakes or the thought of sacrificing a rodent's life to feed a snake. Once someone starts talking smack about what I love, I defend it. Don't care who it is, even if it's a family member.

There will always be people who don't agree with the hobby. But rather than arguing, try educating. The more you argue, it could go on forever and forever.