Live Feeding Morally Wrong???

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Originally Posted by joepythons

I wonder how those people posting those remarks think a snake eats in the wild? They do not stroll up to the local SNAKEYD'S(thier version of mickyd's :rofl:) and ask for a frozen thawed rat sandwich :P

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Exactly... I tried to explain to these people that snakes are natural predators... Not scavengers. I think they should be able to exercise predatory instinct even in captivity.

It just proved the ignorance of these people when they caved in to my argument by stating that they "understood"... The real problem they had was that "people post this sick animal abuse on youtube!" She tried to convince me that it should not be on there because there were "a lot of people who were offended by it." When they voluntarily click on links called "Feeding my Python", and "Anaconda eats Gerbil". For people like us that is some quality material that will hold our interest. But if you can't handle you shouldn't watch.... simple as that. That is when I realized I was dealing with some serious ignorance and I would get nowhere with this person.

I tell people humans can eat 1000's of different things but many of us choose to eat some kind of meat. Just because it comes nicely packaged in plastic wrap and styrofoam tray it is still an animal that was killed for consumption(go watch a video of a slaughter house, much worse). Many parts of the animal are discarded(bones, fur etc...) and wasted, but it's ok because it tastes good. Dont get me wrong I love steak but I dont feel I am the only species who is morally allowed to consume animal meat.

Snakes only eat one thing on the planet, rodents. they cant change their mind and eat anything else. they waste not a drop of their meal and it is the natural order of life. Rodents are designed to multiply in large #'s because they are a vital part of the food chain which is Natures/God's design (for the holyier than thou minded people who think we should burn in hell LOL) not mine or the snakes.

Also if a bunch of rats were running around your home most people would call an exterminator to kill them, somehow people feel only their ignorant comfort level is the gauge of what is right and wrong.

I grow orchids and most people have no problem seeing the beauty in them but when I say my snakes also are beautiful works of natures art, they dont quite get it but do get some kind of reference.

Closed minded people will always compare snakes with evil so them eating appears evil to them. I can understand that some people dont enjoy watching a mouse get eaten(my wife wont) and I can respect that but why do they watch a snake feeding video and say how messed up it is? There are some things I'm not comfortable watching but guess what, I dont watch them.

You feed your snake what it's willing to eat, but you will still never convince some people about the necessity of feeding live.... And by the way, feeding live because it's 'natural' is NOT a good enough reason. BUT... why on earth do people feel the need to film it and put it on YouTube? I think a lot of the reason some people do that is for the shock value anyway, so the comments they are getting is just what they're looking for. Do people film their dogs eating a can of alpo and put THAT on YouTube?? NO..... So why snakes? It's NOT necessary and it's NOT needed to film this. If you want to impress somebody, film your boa taking a dump and put THAT on YouTube.

I was buying a couple mice at a pet store, and this snot nosed little teenage girl said, "Are those for feeding a snake?" I said yeah. She said, "Oh that's so mean!"

So I said, "So you'd rather the snake starve to death? That's so mean!" lol

I then kept going: "Ever heard of the Black Plague? Those poor defenseless disease carrying disgusting rodents and their fleas killed off a quarter of your ancestors in Europe about 500 years ago... it's pay back time!"

I've learned you're never going to get people who don't agree with you to "understand". It's a quasi-religious belief to those people. And don't even get me started with Germans and their laws and beliefs on animal cruelty... I'm pretty sure it's a law you can't spray ant killer, you have to call out a specialist to remove the ant colony to another location or some weird crap like that...

Reason is wasted on morons, so just mock them. It's the only thing that will make your day better :)

China... Islam? The west is weak, we're ready to be taken over any day now!

I personally pre-kill my food, but I don't think feeding live is immoral. I PK due to two main reasons: the safety of my snakes and the prey is instantly killed without feeling any pain.

Now I don't see much of a reason to feed live and film it. Especially if you've seen the piranah feeding videos. The poor mice get ripped to pieces, limb by limb.

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Originally Posted by bait4snake

I was buying a couple mice at a pet store, and this snot nosed little teenage girl said, "Are those for feeding a snake?" I said yeah. She said, "Oh that's so mean!"

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You really can't reason with these people. Every single person that has berated me about feeding live rodents to my snakes always use the "cute" and "defenseless" arguments. "How could you feed a defenseless little mouse to a snake?" "You don't feel bad about killing that cute mouse?". I guarantee these people only give a damn about mice because they're "cute".

Not many people would be upset if snakes' diets consisted solely of spiders. I'd go as far as to say that a majority of people would have a much more positive opinion of snakes if that were the case. But what makes a spider's life less valuable than a rodent's? They all play an equally essential role in the food chain. One just happens to look prettier than the other to most humans.

Something has to control the rodent population. Snakes have been genetically programmed to do just that. Animals can't help the way they kill their food. It's a part of their basic instincts. Besides, nature doesn't care if you think something is too cute to be eaten. End of story.

I personally don't think it's morally wrong to feed a ball python "live" prey. It's called "nature" in my opinion. It is a natural instinct for them to feed on live prey. Regardless of whether or not they are captive they still have the drive to feed on live prey.

As goes for feeding in the tank or out. I feed outside of the tank. All of my snakes are used to it, and it doesn't seem to bother them. I usually wait to remove them from the feeding container until they move around quite a bit after swallowing. But the BIGGEST reason I feed outside of their tank is because if you continue to feed in the tank they will associate food with thier home. I would rather not try to pick one of my snakes up and them mistake me for food.

I just always wonder about the folks that think the mouse is so "cute and defenseless". Would they be the same people screaming to the rooftops if that same mouse was running across their kitchen countertops, defecating and urinating in their breakfast cereal? Would they honor it's life due to it's extreme "cuteness factor" or would they run to call an exterminator or set a trap?

I think part of what upsets some people about live feeding is that they themselves are completely disconnected with the act of feeding even themselves. Pork chops don't just magically show up nicely wrapped in plastic down at the Kroger store. They used to be a cute piglet, then later they went through a meat processing/slaughterhouse process but that's a distasteful thought to some. I know kids that are friends of my 6 year old that their parents won't tell them that pork chops used to be a living pig! How absolutely crazy is that!

I do think there are a number of YouTube video's though that don't do our community any good. They show idiots acting like idiots...they just happen to own snakes (really too bad for those snakes). Those sorts of video's tend to portray people that own snakes as mean spirited, uncaring, "look at my cool freaky pet!" sorts and that gives a less than complete image of most of the snake owners out there.

I post videos on youtube so I can download them back if I ever want them one day.
My computer constantly breaks down and my data is deleted.

And yes, people are odd.
My aunt left my house because I had my BP out.

Even my aprents where stunned, they thought she was kidding around.

I find nothing morally wrong with feeding live in any sense.

On another note...If you look into some recent studies though, many debate on the larger boid species actually asphyxiating their prey. Death sets in entirely too quickly. From data gathered on their studies, it looks as though a large amount of pressure is put on the chest cavity, causing the animals heart to stop. I'd find it less painful, or stressful than previously agreed upon views of suffocation.