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I have gone to great lengths to rescue little bugs that have fallen in the bath tub so that they do not drown when I turn on the shower. I just do not feel right killing anything unnecessarily.
20yrsinBranson
Aww, haha. Me too! I once gave a bug " mouth to mouth " ( blowing at it )after it almost drowned in my kitchen zink. Suddenly it started to move in my hand and when I took it outside it flew away !
I think we make some distinctions. For example, I would not knowingly kill a ladybug or a butterfly. But I wouldn't hesitate to step on a cockroach.
I agree and when I am out picking raspberries and the bushes hum with bee song, I am always talking to the bees. I don't want to be stung and don't want to have to kill any.
When I am gardening I leave the spiders and such alone because I am on their turf but if they come inside, I kill! But I feel bad that I have to do so. But spiders make me cringe and shudder and I simply cannot coexist with them in my home.
I guess I should thank that tick for giving me one helluva case of Lymes Disease? " Thank you little buddy! Now go make lots of little tick babies! My children want to spend 4 months in the hospital just like daddy! There ya go. Multiply and prosper!"
I even felt a tiny bit guilty for killing a cockroach, believe it or not (I usually don't, but this particular time I still felt a bit like a murderer)...nah in general I don't feel guilty killing cockroaches, mosquitos, flies, and very small insects - the first two because I have a 'reason' for it. I'd find it difficult to kill anything else though; even beetles, butterflies.etc.
Call me hypocritical (because I do eat meat, and cows and pigs are higher sentient beings) or too soft, but I still don't like the idea of killing things including the animals we eat even though it's a natural part of the ecosystem. In general I'm very sensitive to cruelty to animals etc but I'm still not ready to join PETA or something.
So I'd like to hear your opinions on the subject and if you feel like I do. Is the guilt over killing instincts an innate or conditioned response? I don't think primitive people feel guilty about hunting animals, but I feel that's a bit more justified than killing for no reason.
Seek medical attention immediately. This could be but the tip of the iceberg.
I kill often and indiscriminately. I am "the spider slayer", "critter killer" "the buginator". I don't want them anywhere in or around my home. I never capture and release, I spray with chemicals, suck it up with a vacuum cleaner hose, or pound it out with anything within arms reach.
Spiders don't stand a chance anywhere in my home. Flies all die. My home is critter free. Occasionally I'll leave the dead carcasses of fresh kills splattered where they die so that the smell lets other critters know to keep away. Then I'll sanitize it all with more cleaning chemicals like pure ammonia.
I don't have a killing conscience when it comes to spiders or any other pest in my home.
When I was about 6 I didn't fully comprehend that I was taking life when I squashed snails or crushed bugs. By the age of 8, though, I became really anti-killing. I wouldn't kill anything except flies, mossies and cockroaches. I was never like those kids who killed insects for fun, and never once burned ants with a magnifying glass.
But even now when I kill a cockroach I find it amazing I can take life just like that, for no reason. What right do I have to say whether another living being gets to live or die?
It is my house, I have the right to determine who or what else lives there.
Is it natural to feel guilty over killing insects?
I doubt it, I also do not believe that the mosquito feels guilt for giving a human Malaria, or the Tse-Tse fly feels guilt for spreading elephantiasis. I refuse to feel guilty for a thing done in self-defense, real or imaginary. Conversely, I do not harm non-poisonous snakes, butterflies, dragonflies, things I know to be non-injurious to me or those around me. I'll cut a copperhead in half in a fraction of a heartbeat. It is the perceived threat that will draw a lethal reaction from me.
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