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  • Philosophical musings on death and killing
  • Karinofnine
    Full Member

    On occasion when out with the dog I find that I have stumbled on a path used by snails. A horrible crunch tells me that I have accidentally stepped on one and killed it. I feel terrible, full of remorse and I berate myself for the senseless slaughter of a defenceless innocent. My dog has also stepped on and killed a snail. She, on the other hand, does not give a shit, apart from not being terribly keen on having snail guts between her toes.

    Thing is, both snails are equally dead. Mine is no less dead because I am horrified by my clumsiness. Hers is no more dead because she couldn't care less.

    It got me to wondering about human behaviour and how a degree of importance is attached to a perpetrator's attitude – if they are remorseful or insouciant. So what do you think? Should we care? Why? Does it matter?

    terrahawk
    Free Member

    You and your dog probably saved some of my lettuce or carrots from being eaten by the pesky slimy things.

    Keep up the snail smashing!

    crikey
    Free Member

    Does it matter?

    Probably not.

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    Woody
    Free Member

    Is there weed involved in this question…………………maaaaaaan?

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    I think Mr & Mrs Thrush will be ok with this. (not the….'fanny' thrush of course, but the feathersd variety)

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    I take your dogs point of view on this one

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    There were ants in my garden.

    Thousands if not millions of them, I felt like Michael Cane in Zulu except their eyes weren't white. They kept coming and coming, slowly but surely not the victoria sponge please not the sponge

    Sponge versus ants, ants versus sponge. I know who my friends are.

    Water, boiling water, a tremor in the force, a million lights snuffed out at once, is that you mother?

    jahwomble
    Free Member

    Snails? they'll have y'leg off given half a chance, it was them or you. kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out.

    toppers3933
    Free Member

    its weird how ill try to save something stupid like a spider in the bath but will beat the crap out of a fly thats buzzing around my lounge. bloody things.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    No, I'm not on drugs! 😆

    Just musing on how little difference our post-accident hand-wringing makes: thinking about the oil gushing out into the Mexican Gulf, about the friends and relatives of the people David (? I think) Bird shot and about this idea that perps should meet their victims.

    Perhaps it's to do with "heaven" – if we're truly sorry we'll go upstairs and live happily ever after?

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    Hmm shall weove on ?

    Kuco
    Full Member

    I live in a flat, it's an old farm building conversion and it get spiders. When I first moved in 3 months it was spider central, it wasn't the spiders that bothered me but the cobwebs they were everywhere.

    I use to catch them and shove them out of a window. But it got to a point I was bashing my head against a wall now I just squish them in a tissue or suck them up with the vac. I don't particularly like killing them any other time I wouldn't, but I just can't stand the cobwebs or the amount I get if I don't keep on top of them.

    I find the Daddy Long legs the worse though for some reason I always seem to find Missing Sector spiders in the bedroom more often than anywhere else.

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    Bloody shirt keypad on HTC desire ! But that's for another thread

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    I was brought up with the rule, you kill it, you eat it. Not a bad rule for a young lad with a gun.

    Gradually this extended to a reluctance to kill anything that didn't merit killing. So I won't hurt a spider, but I'll kill a fly (spreads disease). Careful not to stand on ants if I can avoid it etc.

    simonfbarnes
    Free Member

    I swerve to avoid slugs on the trail 🙂

    Woody
    Free Member

    Perhaps it's to do with "heaven" – if we're truly sorry we'll go upstairs and live happily ever after?

    I'm more inclined to believe in Karma……………..

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Amazing how much difference a hat makes to how we view things. Slugs- no bother, step on them all day. Slugs with hats on- feel bad if you step on them.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    samuri
    Free Member

    Nope. I'd feel terrible if I killed a person, probably suicidal.

    But animals? Nah, they're different in my eyes. I wouldn't be able to justify being an omnivore if I couldn't kill animals and accept that animals need to be killed. If that makes me a lesser person, tough.

    jahwomble
    Free Member

    Based on Northwind's animals in hats theory…..

    I give you evolution in action

    samuri
    Free Member

    Yeah. Northwind's point also raises the 'cute animal' protection dilemma.

    No-one would get out of bed to help save the slug or a snake or a spider that was on the verge of distinction.

    But if a Panda is looking a bit iffy, there are teams of people all working round the clock to save it. Showing it Panda porn to get it in the mood, fluffers work away at it's tiny knob so it's ready to go, hand feeding it tender bamboo shoots.

    It's the most useless animal ever invented. It was destined to become extinct, Darwin might have written a word or two about paranoid, frigid creatures with no killer instinct. Yet because it looks quite cute it has survived well beyond it's natural species span.

    Kuco
    Full Member

    mmmmmm panda curry 😉

    Gordy
    Free Member

    I was brought up with the rule, you kill it, you eat it. Not a bad rule for a young lad with a gun.

    Gradually this extended to a reluctance to kill anything that didn't merit killing. So I won't hurt a spider, but I'll kill a fly (spreads disease). Careful not to stand on ants if I can avoid it etc.

    You eat flies??

    higgo
    Free Member

    I feel terrible, full of remorse and I berate myself for the senseless slaughter of a defenceless innocent.

    You strike me as a silly person. Not quite of this world.

    sharki
    Free Member

    Since trying to end my life, i have changed and see life as precious in every way, be it the smallest of critters to gert ones.

    I feel bad when i've trodden on things because i've not noticed them, however i also leave nature to do its thing and and for creatures to live their risky lives, i've only intervened to cease suffering of an injured animal whether big or small.

    3 examples from my present exploits.:

    Bug crossing a path at risk of being eaten or trodden on, i leave it, one critters death helps feed a new life.

    Duckling gets washed away from it's family in fast flowing river, it calls out in vain and manages to struggle to a small island of stones 100m from it's parents, part of me wants to climb down to try and help it, the other says, it's meant to be and will become part of a food chain..i walked away feeling bad about, then happy for the creature who gets it's meal…

    I also came across a sheep lying in a field, still alive but with it's eyes pecked by birds, i calmly killed it without a second thought.

    I'd not think twice about shooting, snaring, trapping animals to provide me with food.

    But when i've a camera and need no food i look at these things as marvels.

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