I use to hate the thought of feeding live untill I found out how many of the major petstore had their mice killed and f/t like petco and other stores.. we have a lab down in Seattle where many petstores get their rats and they're killed inhumanely so thats why we feed live, we breed and feed live. Maybe the people or person or whoever called you a "moron" or whatver didnt like the fact that you held the mouse down, which I also dont like to see. But atleast your snake gets to eat Anywho, Beautiful snake! Nice and big. How much does S/he weigh?