Kitten Feeders

I wish people would stop posting on CL and social media that they are looking for free kittens to use as snake food... It's not helping the snake/reptile community one bit. I am 99% sure this one person is trolling trying to get a reaction out of people.

Not to mention that two days after I saw the post I found a kitten that I really wanted (because I love cats) so I went with the roommate to pick her up. Roommate told her I have snakes and the lady refused to give me the kitten because she was convinced I was going to feed it to one of the snakes.... Oh well I don't NEED a cat anyways. There was no convincing her otherwise. Now I have a bunch of kitty stuff and no cat. [emoji29]

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facts and reason wont always get someone to believe you but it helps. A cat is like $ 50 -100 where as a rat is like $ 2-5. Ya there are always people that do messed up things and it probably has happened where at cat was fed to a snake but that's why you don't post an animal for free. Someone that pays $ 100 for a kitten isnt going to see if there snake will eat it, or light it on fire, or throw it off a bridge.

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Originally Posted by Ba11er

facts and reason wont always get someone to believe you but it helps. A cat is like $ 50 -100 where as a rat is like $ 2-5. Ya there are always people that do messed up things and it probably has happened where at cat was fed to a snake but that's why you don't post an animal for free. Someone that pays $ 100 for a kitten isnt going to see if there snake will eat it, or light it on fire, or throw it off a bridge.

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Not all cats are 50-100. There are plenty of dogs/cats that are put to sleep at shelters every day. Not to say I would feed them to any of my animals but if they are going to die anyway it would seem kind of wasteful not to.
I know some local zoos that take road kill quite often for their predators, I don't see why dogs/cats from a local kill shelter should be any different.

The problem is that shelters euthanize by injection, not co2. No idea if that's safe for reptiles to eat.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

The problem is that shelters euthanize by injection, not co2. No idea if that's safe for reptiles to eat.

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Absolutely not, that will kill your reptile.

OP's roommate needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.

If you want a kitten I see tons of them posted on FB every day.

CL jerk should be <censored> before being <censored> and <censored>.

Eating animals that have been euthanised via barbiturates will at least make a predator very sick, if not outright kill them.

Obviously feeding animals that were euthanized by injection is bad, I was suggesting maybe changing the way they are euthanized so that the body does not go to waste.

The only way they could do it that would be 'humane' would be by shooting them in the head, and I'm sure you can imagine the safety issues, the possibility for injuring rather than killing, AND the public outcry over such a thing. Plus, the trauma to the human doing that. Shelter workers do have increased suicide risks as is. I recently had to perform 7 euthanasias in a single day at my shelter (all privately owned animals) and that was with our nice, gentle drugs. If I had to regularly do that many I'd quit the field entirely. I certainly couldn't shoot them in the head without probably turning that gun on myself.

People don't mind doing it to cattle, chickens, pigs, etc. all day long.

Yeah, people seem to think having a snake, no matter what size, and wanting anything cute means you're gonna feed it off to the snake. It's frustrating, really, and as a result I never ever mention mine when it comes to adoptions. It is sad how many people don't seem to grasp someone can love snakes AND furry creatures deeply.

Anyway, hopefully you can get a kitten like the one you saw, I'm sure there's a lookalike somewhere! Cats are incredibly fun to have around (you mentioned loving cats so I'm sure you know that), and I wish you the best in finding one, maybe even better than the one you were after. Though, I don't mean to be rude, I would suggest going alone to pick that one up/interview for it so no one else ruins your chances by mentioning your snakes. :c Best of luck!

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Originally Posted by enginee837

People don't mind doing it to cattle, chickens, pigs, etc. all day long.

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Exactly. Some people 'rate' animals differently. One person could think that cats are the most important animals on Earth and another couldn't care not one bit about cats, and that's perfectly fine to me. Just my opinion, but I think this is the reason why people in Asian countries have no problem at all eating cats and dogs.

OP- Good luck finding another kitten! Where I live there are ads everywhere about kittens, sorta wish people got their cats spayed more often. But anyways, me owning a snake has never been a problem. When I adopted my puppy, I let the person know upfront that I had a snake. The lady was really fascinated and even held Karma during the home visit:gj:

Sorry to hear you couldn't take the kitten.

I would NEVER feed a shelter cat or kitten to a snake. I've worked in shelters - the animals tend to come in diseased, esp. the kittens. It gets gross. Considering what most people feed their cats, and what shelters nearly always feed (the cheapest), do you want that for your snake??

No need for a bullet on kittens. It is illegal, for some reason, but a blow to the head with a rock or hammer works fine (an adult cat could be theoretically wrapped in a towel first). We were forced to admit kittens that were crawling with all kinds of nasties, and keep them somewhere, until the animal control officer "got around" to giving the shots. Apparently, they are expensive. We never seemed to have a ready supply in stock - horribly bad mgt., but I had no say, was just a volunteer.

Ugh.

Like I said, I think that the person looking for free kittens was trolling just to get a reaction out of people. I'll find another cat, but the way the Lady acted was over the top.

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i have and always will be a dog person whereas my gf loves cats. The only reason we don't have any is because of our renting situation, but this article made me rethink owning our little furry friend.

http://www.livescience.com/26670-cat...s-animals.html

Cats are effective hunters, and do what nature made them to do but with our over breeding them it has had a few consequences on other species.

I dont know how i feel about keeping cats as an indoor pet but it would cut down on the amount of animals they hunt. Also cats have a tendency to hunt for fun and dont consume a fair amount of what they kill according to a different article i read. Not saying dont get a cat but definately spay/ neuter if its just a pet and consider as a house animal.

Absolutely spay or neuter!

In the neighborhood where I used to live, we had a person who fed stray cats, and the things took over the neighborhood. I walked into her house one day and tripped over cat, and they were all over the place. The stink was awful, and they were renters! Cars swerved to avoid cats, and another neighbor had hundreds of dollars worth of insulation shredded under his house. Many cats had crusted, runny noses, and they yowled under our windows at night. The kittens kept dying with crudded noses. They killed birds and left the remains laying around, and one crawled under my house and died. I had a bed of garlic that someone brought back from Transylvania. The awful things dug it up and crapped all over my nice garlic bed. If anyone keeps cats, pleeze keep them indoors and spay or neuter! I trapped the things and turned them into the shelter until the shelter asked for their trap back because I was bringing in too many. I didn't dislike cats before living there, but now I do. Anyway, if someone wants one for a pet and doesn't inflict it on their neighbors that's their business, but please spay or neuter and do not allow them to run loose! Please!

I would never feed one of those things to a snake. It's not PC, and the snake might get indigestion.

Cats are one of my biggest rant triggers. Maybe the biggest.
/end rant

Middle aged women are supposed to love cats and hate snakes. I didn't read the book.

Yeah, cats definentily need to be spayed or neutered. To me it seems like they reproduce faster than dogs.

I'll admit that I'm a dog person, but I guess cats are decent. At my school one of my teachers has a kitten for a class pet. Where I live though, they're considered pests and with good reason.

This thread reminds me of a book I saw on Amazon.com

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

In California it is illegal to use "pet" animals as food for humans or other animals. It probably has been done (like pretty much every deplorable act people can imagine), but it's a crime.

In regards to the feral cat discussion, we had a longstanding battle with mice until we started feeding a random feral cat. She popped out two kittens, we trapped and spayed/neutered the whole family, released, and for the last 4 years not a single hint of rodents. They live in the back yard, where we built a small shelter for them to use in bad weather. The cat family shares the shelter and the evening cat food with a family of wild possums and the occasional raccoon.

The cats eat mice to this day. but ignore even the baby possums.

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Originally Posted by enginee837

People don't mind doing it to cattle, chickens, pigs, etc. all day long.

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Actually, suicide and domestic murder rates are far higher for guys who work the kill line at a slaughterhouse. They have to rotate them frequently to keep any employees. Causing death is not a healthy thing for someone to do all day.

I think---I hope---that most of those are trolls. Someone on my cat forum posted one of those, you know, a "look how horrible this is" kind of thing. But the person had posted a picture of a ball python and it said "my snake has outgrown mice and rats so I'm looking for an 8-12 week old kitten". Now, of course, a BP is never going to outgrow rats, and the picture was of a not-especially-large BP too. Maybe that snake would be eating weaned rats or small rats. 2-3 ounces, tops. An 8-12 week old kitten weighs 2-3 POUNDS. I mean, even if someone were to try to feed a kitten to a BP, well, even newborn kittens should weigh 4 ounces, it would have to be a big BP to eat something that size. Also, as picky as they are idk if they'd even take it. So I'm pretty sure that particular one was trolling, and that how I replied to the thread. But there probably are some Burm or RTB owners who have used cats as feeders :/.

And yes, I know that rationally, meat is meat, an animal is an animal, etc. But I still just can't support feeding kittens or puppies to other animals, even if they are unwanted. Just nope.

And, yeah, cats were originally "domesticated" to kill rodents around human habitation. People say "cats kill a bazillion critters a year! They're evil!" Well, yeah? Would you rather have those bazillion rodents running around on your property? I think you'd kill them too. My parents had a cat who hunted heavily, and when he died the rabbits had a field day, the population just exploded.

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Originally Posted by Willowy

Actually, suicide and domestic murder rates are far higher for guys who work the kill line at a slaughterhouse. They have to rotate them frequently to keep any employees. Causing death is not a healthy thing for someone to do all day.

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Thats is because as a society we are too far removed from where our food comes from. It is also because we are too sheltered from death and the fear of it. This is nothing more than a perspective brought on by our culture. I have worked in and around traumatic incidents for the better part of 20+ years. I have seen the effects of ptsd and seen it treated for. In the end, it is not the event that causes it, it is the way the event was perceived. Some people naturally have the tools to deal with it, some don't. That does not really make for an argument as to why it is OK to feed certain animals and not others.

Think about it. Who gets to decide what animals are supposed to be pets, what animals are for eating and what animals are for feeding to other animals? Why is it socially acceptable to eat horse and dog meat in some countries and not in the U.S.?

My point is all life (as far as animals are concerned) has the same value. There is no logic in saying a cats life is worth any more than a dog, rat, snake etc. The is never an excuse to abuse any of them but we need to remember where we are in the food chain and recognize that it is normal and ok that for some to survive, others must be eaten. In order for us to live in some places, some creatures must be exterminated. Rats and snakes are killed by the thousands each year because they are viewed as pests or dangerous.

One The first things people say when they find out I have a snake is, "aren't you afraid it will eat your cats?" Usually I don't even bother explaining that the snake is in a tank, and just point out that my real fear (and this is true, btw) is that the cat will eat the snake.

I gotta say that from what I've seen, once someone views any life as expendable or worthless, they're much more likely to have a diminished view of human life as well. I don't know if slaughterhouse workers in other countries face the same mental issues. It would be interesting to see if anyone has done a study. Is it cultural or innate? Butchers used to be looked down upon, lowest caste, in many cultures, what caused that? Very interesting subject.

I would kind of put life expectancy as one determination of value of a life. As in, a dog's life (12-15 years) is worth more than a mouse's life (1 year). Also intelligence and capacity for mental suffering and/or having the capacity to grieve the loss of a mate/companion. There are probably other criteria people tend to go by, even across cultures. Another interesting subject!

It is not that life is expendable or worthless, quite contrary it has value and you do not take it unless necessary. As for a view of animal life effecting a view of human life, that has too many factors to gauge. I do not even seen them in the same spectrum.
My personal religious beliefs lead me to believe only humans have souls (they are the only ones spoken about that require baptism) and the only ones spoken of in the afterlife (in the bible anyway). I also believe based on religious beliefs that as humans we were here to placed in charge of the earth and animals around it and it's our job to take care of them.