You know, I'm really not trying to be disrepsectful here, but if you don't agree with breeding rodents for snake food, why would you come on here (the feeder section of a snake site) and express your view points in such a manner as to try to seemingly convert people from doing just that?
Some people breed cornsnakes for kingsnake or monitor food, I don't agree with it, but I also don't frequent those sites that seem to encourage it. I feed my sickly cornsnake hatchlings to my own kingsnakes. It's the responsible and non-wasteful thing to do.
If people want to breed their cat or dog for boa/python food, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that either because I have both for pets. But then again I don't agree with all of the unfixed 'pets' being dumped because they're not wanted anymore, to die a miserable death in the woods at the hands of a pack of hungry coyotes.
It's all relative for me, I guess. So long as they lead a good and well-cared for life in captivity and die as humanely as possible, I really don't care what happens to them after they die. I raise my own chickens for my own meals. They lead a life a hell of a lot better than the chicken meat you buy in the store ever thought about. Those chickens never saw grass, bugs, dust baths, sunlight, etc. Mine die with dignity and make a great chicken and noodles with dignity.
People eat dogs, cats, AND rats in Southeast Asia, people eat horses in Europe, people eat snakes in the US, people eat spiders in South America, and some people eat people. "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat" kind of thing.
But I don't go to sites and try to convert people to my way of thinking, necessarily. Yes, rats can make great pets, or so I am told. But I personally don't trust any rat any farther than I could throw one, hypothetically speaking. And I certainly don't discuss how great of a pet they are in a feeder section of a snake forum. No matter how many "aren't they cute?" picture posts I may do, I never lose sight of the fact that they are ultimately, snake food.
To go back on topic, I've euthanized mouse and rat pinks in a carbon dioxide chamber (when I had dry ice), and due to their resistance to smothering it took a heck of a lot longer and a lot more gasping than even I was comfortable with. Fastest way I've seen is a thump to the head and in the freezer they go, and its over in a minute or two.
So I hope I didn't come across as a complete ass, as that was not my intention at all. It just doesn't make any sense to me to hang out on a forum section that would obviously cause grief to a person with beliefs such as yours, and try to 'spread the word' on how great of a pet rats can be.
I just don't get it. :shrugs:
