They save them...

[Jay_Bunny]

I was in the petstore yesterday looking at corn snakes and my fiance was busy carrying around a kitten they had up for adoption. (we really wanted that kitten, but we have to wait till we get the townhome). A woman and her two kids come into the store and ask almost in a desperate voice, "Do you have any young rats? Like 6-10 weeks old." Well they didn't have ones that young, but a bit older and I wanted to see the rats too since I want rats eventually. So we go to the back room where they keep thier feeders and breeders. The woman and her kids go ga-ga over all these rats and the woman looks over at me and says "I rescue them" And I'm thinking she rescues them from petstores, but this isn't exactly a bad petstore. Then she says "You know, from people who feed them to snakes. I just try and save a few." She has 13 now. So, I leave the room and stand outside the reptile room. As they are coming out, I ask an employee about one of the snakes in the reptile room and I think the woman felt a little wierd.

She had just told a snake owner that she rescues rats from snakes. I couldn't help but laugh when she left.

People like this really bother me. It is nature. Snakes eat rats. Big deal. Nature designed them to eat rodents and that is what they eat.

[Nate]

haha i would have made a complete fool out of her maaan....

"you know..from these people who feed them to snakes"

"OH REALLY! I feed over 300 snakes a week!!" (even tho that's not true...far from it)

or..."Yeah I'm one of those people...i'm buying what you don't buy"

[Freakie_frog]

People have a hard time understanding that these rats are breed for the purpose of feeding.. LOL

I love seeing the face of the people at the feeder store that walk in and are like I need one rat..then I say I need 15 mice and 6 small rats.. :eek: :eek: I really need to breed rats this is getting expensive..

[Jay_Bunny]

I was tempted to say something like that. People like that really annoy me. I should have told her to save some crickets and mealworms too. I mean, they feel pain and they get fed to lizards. It wouldn't be fair for her to save rats and not crickets and mealworms.

[Jay_Bunny]

Seriously, why do you think rodents breed so rapidly and produce so many babies. Its to make up for all the rodents that are eaten by birds, lizards, other mammals and reptiles. Its how nature works. We just reproduce it in captivity.

[Nate]

That's a concept that PETA refuses to educate themselves on.

[Freakie_frog]

That's a concept that PETA refuses to educate themselves on.

PETA's bigger bark is that they can't convert the carnivores of the animal kingdom to be vegetarians..I mean its just so cruel that snakes and lions eat other animals I mean can't they just eat a nice salad...LOL

[daniel1983]

People like this really bother me. It is nature. Snakes eat rats. Big deal. Nature designed them to eat rodents and that is what they eat.

It bothers me too...

I remember reading an article one time of a woman beating a young bear half to death with a branch in order to keep it from attacking a fawn....

.....some people have no idea of how nature functions...

lmao....save the rodents... feed your snake some sausages....

[JLC]

I guess I don't get what the big fuss is about. Do we get offended or upset if someone else doesn't like chocolate icecream but we love it? I realize it's not a perfect analogy, but my point is, we all have different opinions and different points of view...and if it's not hurting anyone, why should it bother us? She gives a few rats a happy home. (We assume and hope) She feels good for having "rescued" them from the big bad snake people. Yeah...ok....I'd roll my eyes...I'd be mildly amused....but only because my personal point of view is so radically different from hers. I would NOT be upset with her or even mildly annoyed. I might even think it's kinda cute.....like the little kid who "rescues" the earthworms by dumping over the fisherman's bait bucket.

[JLC]

I remember reading an article one time of a woman beating a young bear half to death with a branch in order to keep it from attacking a fawn....
....

This popped up while I was still typing. I think this sort of thing is entirely different from a lady buying rats so they don't get eaten by snakes. The snakes don't get hurt in this scenario...they just eat a different rat.