Man tries to feed kitten to boa

[wilomn]

This ruined snake keepers reputation. heres the link.
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news...rge_09_01_2009

I don't think this has to affect snake keepers in a negative light.

All we need to do is be loud and reasonable, no calls for death or threats of kicking his teeth in (that DOES make us all look crazy) or anything of that nature.

Simply stating that he's a fool and NOT representative of most of us. There are bad apples in every group. We, as keepers, don't have to let him represent us.

This thread, for the most part, is evidence of that. No one approves of the treatment of that kitten. The guy should be punished. Legally.

If cool heads don't prevail, then we look bad as a whole.

Remember people, once you post it, anyone can find it, save it, and bring it out later to make you look the fool.

[nixer]

I'm not a cat person, but can't say I would to the same. Stray cat or not.




And off topic, but do you have Mark Petros' permission to use his picture as an avatar?
http://www.ballpython777.com/lemonblast/lemonblast.html

thats a good question

[Snakeman]

i wonder why it took 5 years to turn this video in....

[elevatethis]

Just want to raise a question here - there are philosophical implications aplenty here.

As animal lovers (most of us here are), we attach greater moral treatment to what we consider "sentient beings," or at least most of us do. We perceive that dogs and cats and other higher order mammals can experience pain, pleasure, fear, and other basic emotion-based sensations. It seems that moral treatment is applied relative to what degree an animal experiences these cognitive qualities. An example would be that we see the act of beating a dog or cat as cruel, but don't think twice about smashing a roach the runs across the floor.

What is ironic here is that when you compare the animals being fed (snakes in this case) to the feeder animals (rats, kittens, whatever), the predator (snakes) may actually come in at a lower ranking as far as to what degree they experience the aforementioned cognitive qualities.

All that being said, I'll accept my own hypocritical stance that I would never feed a kitten to snake, but don't think twice about rodents. That's my own thing. People eat cats in Asia, Cows are sacred in India, and I think right or wrong comes down to what each individual culture thinks about certain animals.

[redpython]

"anybody that abuses animals goes directly to jail..."

yeah but not everyone that rapes or molests another human does.

it's a crazy world we live in.

[snakemansnakes]

all I can say is this guy better not ever cross my path.

[Shawn]

personally I myself would not feed cats,kittens,dogs or puppys to my snakes but on another note you need to realize that somewhere in the world others eat cats and dogs. so as the saying goes one mans trash is anothers mans gold, the same couild be said that one mans pet is another mans meal.

[abuja]

so as the saying goes one mans trash is anothers mans gold, the same couild be said that one mans pet is another mans meal.

Actually made me lol!

[mainbutter]

Well correct me if I'm wrong but I don't know of any snakes that feed on domesticated cats/dogs in the wild except for the areas were people and snakes share the same space. Because if it wasn't for humans in those areas keeping domesticated cats/dogs the snakes wouldn't ever cross paths with them.
Now rats/mice are a known food source for many different snakes in the wild. So I don't see a problem with feeding them to snakes. Just my

Wild cats and dogs are a known food source for many different snakes in the wild, of course generally these are the largest of the large snakes.

Outside of europe and asia, the two most common species we raise as feeders (mus musculus and rattus norvegicus) are NOT natural prey for snakes. Other wild rodent species are natural prey, but not the species we raise.

However just because they aren't natural prey for many snake species, many snakes will happily eat rattus norvegicus and mus musculus if given the opportunity, just as many will eat canis lupus familiaris and felis catus if given the opportunity.

If you feed your ball pythons or american colubrids or boas or aussie snakes feeder mice and feeder rats, you are feeding unnatural prey.