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Why does this seem so wrong?

cornsnakelovah

cornsnakelovah

Romulan with corn snakes
I have a very large quantity of animals in my house. I currently have 2 dogs, 1 cat, six chickens, 2 chicks, fish, and of course Marty, my corn snake. Up until yesterday I also had a guniea pig named lottie. She was 8 3/4 years old. She was my fuzzy animal. She died yesterday.:crying:
I know that some of you snake owners FEED guinea pigs to your snake. Don't get any ideas. On that note, we put her in the freezer until we could bury her properly. My sister said she looks like one of my frozen mice. :poke:
*sigh*
 
That's exactly the difference between a pet and a feeder animal. It might be the same species (or close), but it's a completely different feeling.

My chickens are my pets. People have asked me what I'll do when they stop laying eggs. They suggest chicken soup. Nope, when they stop laying they can live out their life in my garden.
I wouldn't have a problem using another (from another place) chicken for food though. But not these, these are my pets.
 
At least for me, I tend to try very hard to not form attachments to any animals that I know are bought for nothing more than food. WE had a boa that would only eat live, and some of the rats we brought home were terribly cute...but you just keep telling yourself it's dinner and nothing more.

I don't know that I'd be able to feed a former pet to a snake (plus, none that I have are big enough to eat a guinea pig ;) )
 
What if you treat a feeder like a pet until its time comes? My family got a little steer that we raised for 3 years before having it slaughtered and butchered. I would go out and wrestle with him until he got big enough to do some damage. My little brothers would play tag with him. He was an awesome pet, but we all knew that eventually he was going to be on our dinner plates. Is that wrong?
 
I spent $95 for one of my PET mice to receive veterinary care a week ago. I love her dearly, even though she's a "food type" animal. I'd do it again without hesitation.
 
I don't think there is a right or wrong here. Some people (like me) wouldn't be able to kill a pet, even when it was meant for food. Others are. That doesn't mean it's wrong, just that you have another approach to these things.
 
airenlow said:
What if you treat a feeder like a pet until its time comes? My family got a little steer that we raised for 3 years before having it slaughtered and butchered. I would go out and wrestle with him until he got big enough to do some damage. My little brothers would play tag with him. He was an awesome pet, but we all knew that eventually he was going to be on our dinner plates. Is that wrong?
Click to expand...

Josh, to me what you did helped that little steer to have a happy life, even if it was a short one. It was meant to be food, but was cared for very well until that point. I myself couldn't do it, but that doesn't make it wrong.
 
cornsnakelovah said:
I have a very large quantity of animals in my house. I currently have 2 dogs, 1 cat, six chickens, 2 chicks, fish, and of course Marty, my corn snake. Up until yesterday I also had a guniea pig named lottie. She was 8 3/4 years old. She was my fuzzy animal. She died yesterday.:crying:
I know that some of you snake owners FEED guinea pigs to your snake. Don't get any ideas. On that note, we put her in the freezer until we could bury her properly. My sister said she looks like one of my frozen mice. :poke:
*sigh*
Click to expand...
When my mice and fish die. I put them in the freezer all the time. My friend does it to. But instead we say "They are in Cryogenic stasis." instead of "They are in the freezer dead." or "They died. So I put it the freezer."


Kali said:
That's exactly the difference between a pet and a feeder animal. It might be the same species (or close), but it's a completely different feeling.

My chickens are my pets. People have asked me what I'll do when they stop laying eggs. They suggest chicken soup. Nope, when they stop laying they can live out their life in my garden.
I wouldn't have a problem using another (from another place) chicken for food though. But not these, these are my pets.
Click to expand...
I am going to have to agree with you on this. My chickens are young, but when they start laying less and less. They will live out their lives as pets. Besides, they have names, my personal favorite being Buffy. :D

airenlow said:
What if you treat a feeder like a pet until its time comes? My family got a little steer that we raised for 3 years before having it slaughtered and butchered. I would go out and wrestle with him until he got big enough to do some damage. My little brothers would play tag with him. He was an awesome pet, but we all knew that eventually he was going to be on our dinner plates. Is that wrong?
Click to expand...
I couldn't do it. And neither could my mother, her siblings, her mother, and her father. They got a pig one time. They fed and watered like they would a feeder. Well they started get more and more attached to it. My grandfather would grab a chair and sit at the pen. He would get a beer and the pig got a beer. When they slaughter the hog they had to give the meat away. They just couldn't eat it.
 
When my first guniea pig passed away i insisted we keep the cage. Something told me we would need it soon. As if my hunch was right, my vet called a month later and said they had a guinea pig someone brough to be put down. that was lottie. she lived longer than even the most perfect guniea pig under ideal conditions was ever supposed to live. lottie power!
 
airenlow said:
What if you treat a feeder like a pet until its time comes? My family got a little steer that we raised for 3 years before having it slaughtered and butchered. I would go out and wrestle with him until he got big enough to do some damage. My little brothers would play tag with him. He was an awesome pet, but we all knew that eventually he was going to be on our dinner plates. Is that wrong?
Click to expand...

I'm with the others on this. There's no right or wrong when it comes down to it. Everyone has different tolerances and what they're able to do. I couldn't, personally, but it doesn't make it wrong. (I was raised in the country near enough people with farms who did similar. Some animals were treated like pets until it was their time)
 
I recently bought a small rat to feed to the gopher snake that was given to me at Petco, by a kid that didn't want to take it back where he caught it. Well, the snake didn't even go near the little mouse so I kept it as a pet with my other rats. Unfortunately the little guy only lived about a month in a half, because he was so young when removed from his mother, and even though he was nibbling at the food and drinking water, he still had some issues.
Well, I woke up one day last week, and found him dead, so I put him in the freezer, and the next day thawed him out and fed him to the snake, which ate him, no problem...

That was when I decided to keep the snake, because he flat out refuses live food. And so far has only taken F/T.
 
I cry when any of my pets die. I love them all dearly. Even the snakes that don't love me back. I have owned rats and mice too. That is why I prefer to feed f/t. I don't think I could look a little mouse in the face knowing I was going to kill it after owning them as pets and knowing how smart they actually are and how loving they can be.

Growing up my grandparents had a farm. I would love playing with all the animals. Even the pigs (which my grandma always told me not to mess with cause they were mean). I knew that most of these animals would die and become our food. I would cry when that time came. But I also ate the meat. I didn't know what steak belonged to which animal. But we were poor. Most of my life I've eaten home grown food. I would have starved if I didn't eat it.

My grandparents have passed and we live on the old farm now. No more farm animals here though we did keep the big garden. Our meat comes from the store now. So no emotion attachments to it.
 
I had three elderly rats as pets that died, and I told my fiance (after about a week of them being in the freezer and I felt less depressed about their deaths) that he could feed them if he did it when I wasn't home, because I really didn't know what else to do with the bodies.
 
I know it's not exactly the same thing as feeding a dead pet to another pet, but my dog Twixie is getting on in years and has this luxurious coat.... I love her like a daughter, she was my very first pet and is the perfect dog, but when she dies, I kind of want her fur. It seems like such a waste to bury it, it's so wonderful and soft, and if I had it, it'd be like I could still be with her even after she died. Is that bad? >_>
 
My chickens are all pets. Whe the stop laying, the either spend the rest of their life in my yard, or they go to the "chicken riterment home" in this wonderfull place my vet has. lots of roosts and grass. she currently have three laying birds that are named Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. she loves the eggs. she feeds them pancakes on saturday. lol.
 
Sorry about guinea pigs, they are soo cute with those little lips and paws.We had a pair this last summer and I was so allergic I had to rehome them.I got my son an outdoor bunny instead.
I also have 3 chickens.I cried when one of my original australorps died for no reason, we think it ruptured something inside.I dont normally do that, Im not a mushball but she died in my arms.I replaced her with a Rhode island and she is a real meany but will also attack any dogs or cats that come near "her flock".They lay so many eggs we dont always eat them all, and thats only three chickens.When they stop laying I dont know what I will do yet but wont eat them thats for sure.
 
I kept a whisker from my favorite childhood tabby cat. When he wandered off I searched for two weeks for body, but never found him. It is hard to lose a friend. I had my last tabby cremated after he was put down.
 
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