Kittens For Food?

[Bogertophis]

This is an interesting discussion, though none of my snakes are big enough to consume kittens, much less cats, & I'd personally never even feed
wild rodents to my snakes, because of the risks of diseases, parasites (including fleas that can jump off on me & my dogs!) & possible exposure to
pesticides or other unhealthy things in the environment that hadn't yet killed the rodent but could affect my snakes.

But pet overpopulation IS a very real problem- as are loose cats & dogs. And in many parts of the world, they are looked upon very differently.
Many years ago I spent a year in South Korea...and seeing dogs crammed into crates on the back of bicycles ridden to the meat market was heart-
breaking. And if a loose dog happened to get hit crossing a street it was immediately scooped up by a passing motorist for dinner, not for first aid.
It didn't matter if it was someone's pet that had only just got loose, it was fair game.

Many of us (myself included) love horses, and most owners take good care of them. But more than we'd like to admit, people are keeping horses
that shouldn't: maybe they've fallen on hard times, but they fail for whatever reasons to feed & care for them and their animals are left suffering,
without food & water. Yet we frown on consuming them here, while many other countries have no such hesitation.

Before I got into snakes, I had all sorts of pet rodents (hamsters, rats & chipmunks), yet when I got to know snakes, I was able to "take sides" &
raise rats, mice & hamsters as both pets (to sell) & feeders. I try to think of myself as taking the role of nature...keeping back the best to breed
(or to sell as pets, when I had a side business), & feed off the others (as they'd be in the natural food chain).

I don't know what all the answers are, but I know our society needs to address these issues. I'm neither a vegetarian nor the most carnivorous person
around (I actually prefer soy burgers to real ones, lol) but I do think that animals all deserve respect & humane care. Just because we don't want to
use feral cats (or dogs etc.) as feeders, doesn't mean that we should ignore the problem. Inevitably we get drawn into all sorts of discussions about
pets because many people think we're horrible for even feeding rodents to snakes, even by people who eat meat themselves.