It isn't as though they can eat anything else. They're not cows, they can't go grazing on the grass(or the substrate.) A carnivorous animal CANNOT garner all their nutrients from volatile fatty acids obtained from plants. Animals can't just suddenly go vegan. The reason cows and such can survive on things like dry hay and grass is because of microbial activity in their guts. Ruminants have to go through a rigorous process of digestion, eructation, and regurgitation to digest plant matter. We can't do that. The snake cannot do that, lions can't do that, cats can't do that, sharks cannot do that.
While a lot of the details of the food industry are overblown(for example, cows are not butchered when they're alive, they're rendered completely brain-dead with a captive bolt gun), I can honestly say that the mice the snakes get are humanely killed.
Giving them a live rat, the rat will be chased around and be absolutely terrified, whereas a frozen mouse was killed with CO2. (They pass out and die without even feeling it.)
"I feel bad for eating meat...but it isn't like I'm going to do anything about it because I'm lazy."
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