Feeders Remorse???

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Originally Posted by Wild Bill

I do enjoy raising the rats and laugh at their antics occasionally. But I have no problem feeding them off, I have no problem looking at a cow and going "MMMMMM STEAK". Its all the circle of life. In todays age we have become distant of the kill and slaughter of animals for food.

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Exactly!

Distanance from food causes people to not understand the "circle of life" and villify predators such as the ball python that provide an important ecological function......Furthermore, people dont realize that the rich diversity of life (ie number of species) we see wouldnt be much less without predators that act as so called "keystone species" ....species whose very presence keeps their prey from competing other species to death.

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Originally Posted by Wild Bill

If you had to butcher your own meat and had done it your whole life, this wouldn't even cross your mind.

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We probably wouldnt have as many emergent first world chroinic illnesses ethier.....there is something very honorable about killing your own food. I am not hunter.....but I have immense respect for those that do hunt and wish I was taught how to do it.....

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People also dont realize that nearly every biomedical breakthrough can utilimately be traced back to animial research....vaccines, antibiotics, organ transplants, our understanding of cancer, the list goes on.....

Sure we can minimize and reduce the number of animials in some cases in biomedical research...for example, most toxicology assay can now be performed cheaper and more reliablly using biochemical or microbial assays....however, as long as people demand better medical treatments for disease.....animial research will be needed......

I dont think too many animial rights activists ever stop and not accept antibiotics or an organ if they need it.....

When we mine or build a new road we hurt way more animials and wild-life than most people even care to think about.....its like when you hear so many people die in world-war II...its such a high-number we cant really fanthom it easily....

As someone also pointed out........like feed colonies.....lab animial colonies have way better lives for the most part than their wild counter-parts....a lab mouse or rat never straves and can always find a mate.....

In fact, there are so many regulations on animial research now sometimes its hard no to think they dont have a better life than we do.....

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

Exactly!

Distanance from food causes people to not understand the "circle of life" and villify predators such as the ball python that provide an important ecological function......Furthermore, people dont realize that the rich diversity of life (ie number of species) we see wouldnt be much less without predators that act as so called "keystone species" ....species whose very presence keeps their prey from competing other species to death.



We probably wouldnt have as many emergent first world chroinic illnesses ethier.....there is something very honorable about killing your own food. I am not hunter.....but I have immense respect for those that do hunt and wish I was taught how to do it.....

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People also dont realize that nearly every biomedical breakthrough can utilimately be traced back to animial research....vaccines, antibiotics, organ transplants, our understanding of cancer, the list goes on.....

Sure we can minimize and reduce the number of animials in some cases in biomedical research...for example, most toxicology assay can now be performed cheaper and more reliablly using biochemical or microbial assays....however, as long as people demand better medical treatments for disease.....animial research will be needed......

I dont think too many animial rights activists ever stop and not accept antibiotics or an organ if they need it.....

When we mine or build a new road we hurt way more animials and wild-life than most people even care to think about.....its like when you hear so many people die in world-war II...its such a high-number we cant really fanthom it easily....

As someone also pointed out........like feed colonies.....lab animial colonies have way better lives for the most part than their wild counter-parts....a lab mouse or rat never straves and can always find a mate.....

In fact, there are so many regulations on animial research now sometimes its hard no to think they dont have a better life than we do.....

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so what your reaalllyyy trying to say is?....
(all you waynes world fans)

Just one question, Cueball: Does a blouse come with that dress you're wearing? :P

J/K... I think it does get easier the more you do it. Right now I'm euthanizing about 40 rats a month, and at first it was pretty tough because they're right out of the weanling stage and about as cute as you can get. I just put myself in "autopilot" now and get very mechanical about it. I'll still play with them when I'm cleaning cages, but I put all of the behind me when it's time to do the deed.

I also look at it from another perspective. Generally people in this country have become rather spoiled when it comes to things of this nature. You go to the store and pick up a pack of hamburger meat or hot dogs, and you don't really think much about it. It's just a food item like anything else in the grocery store, but you don't think much about the animal that gave its life to feed you. I figure eauthanizing rats are my way of appreciating the lives I take for granted to feed myself or my pets.

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Originally Posted by 4Khan

so what your reaalllyyy trying to say is?....
(all you waynes world fans)

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What I am trying to say is that if you have feeder's remorse.....you might also want to think of having "medicine remorse" or "economic development remorse"....having these remorses arent necessarily bad...they'll make you appreciate all that we have in this county and why economic and societal substainabilty is a worthy goal....so that the circle of life and our socity dont carsh

I also think if you broaden your perpective like this it will help your feeder's remorse subside.....

When I would euthanize and freeze my own rodents, I always was very aware that if one of my snakes decided not to eat....I killed a rodent for no reason. Since I am an avid hunter, I have been taught to respect life and never waste what I kill....so that always seems to bother me a bit.

When keeping animals that live solely on rodents, you just have to accept the fact that the rodents will die somewhere along the line. Personally, I have no problem euthanizing rodents.....but it bother me when they are 'wasted'.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

Just one question, Cueball: Does a blouse come with that dress you're wearing? :P

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Lawrence! You poopyhead! Buwhahahha! :8:

So here I am, this hardened farm-girl, tomboy...I had bought a pinky for Carmen (I know, too small, long story) but ended up not feeding her. Sooo...what I am going to do with this pinky? So tiny, so helpless, so cold...=( I held him for like 20 minutes, trying to warm him up a bit and figure out what to do. Almost drove him back to the store where I buy my feeders so that he could be back with a momma mouse...nearly cried trying to figure out what to do with this helpful little thing...

Ended up giving it to Cleo (who slurped it down in about 3 seconds - what a pig!)...but I was glad to have not wasted the little guy or his life and that he didn't suffer any longer (as I assumed he was).

See?! Tomboys are softies too! AND I have my toe nails painted...so...neener.

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Originally Posted by cueball

Thank you all very much! I do feel much better not being alone and having hope for the future :)


I feed them Mazuri, seeds and hard fruit. I provide them with an aspen and pine bedding mixture. Their water is fresh with a splash of vanilla. They are cooled naturally from an underground cooler flowing cool air around them. I handle them with leather gloves so neither party gets too jumpy. Though when it comes time to feed them off I just want to let them go in the woods.

Time and yalls support will heal me!

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Sounds like your rat colony is living the good life and as far as "want to let them go in the woods" just remember a rodent is food to just about everything out there so it's not going to go be free and hang out with the bunny rabbits...it's gonna be something's dinner p.d.q.

As far as whether a rat suffers when it's taken down by a snake, we'll never really know. Again, and I know I babble on about Mother Nature but, who are we to say what happens and who feels what, when and how. Snakes were designed to eat rodents, rodents were designed to be the perfect and complete meal for a snake. It's only when us humans with our emotional brains get involved that it becomes complicated beyond what it is - a straightforward perfectly designed system.

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Originally Posted by adizziedoll

Well, I dont want to start something here, but i would have to disagree a little. I've seen some rats struggling for their lives for minutes, just trying to breathe. Bones are broken, airways are restricted, and the bite itself it probably painful enough. I guess the word minimal is throwing me off. Again, I dont really want to start anything :lurk:

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That's totally cool....I've seen the same thing too. However, in my experience, that situation is the exception to the rule. Banking on that, some people taking the humane stance would say that the small instance of that occurring is enough on its own to say that live feeding is no ethical for them. Its just not where I stand personally, and each of us will have to make that decision for ourselves, as well as accept the stance of others.

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

What I am trying to say is that if you have feeder's remorse.....you might also want to think of having "medicine remorse" or "economic development remorse"....having these remorses arent necessarily bad...they'll make you appreciate all that we have in this county and why economic and societal substainabilty is a worthy goal....so that the circle of life and our socity dont carsh

I also think if you broaden your perpective like this it will help your feeder's remorse subside.....

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I gotcha! and I totally agree with ya.
I work in a neonatal intensive care unit. Life on the thin line between here and gone is something I see all the time. the medical aspect to life is not only benefical but also cruel along so many other things. im no hippee and im no yuppie but at the end of the day it all boils down to respect for me. respect for animals/nautre, respect for other people and their views etc.
and i guess none of this really matters lol :sigh2: no one really cares!

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Originally Posted by 4Khan

no one really cares!

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Dont be so negative...a lot of people do!