# Have you ever killed anything before in your life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 12, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601 "2012-04-12T20:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/1 "2012-04-12T20:15:00Z")
Have you ever killed anything before in your life? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/2 "2012-04-12T20:16:59Z")
I assume you mean larger than an insect. Not directly. Put out some mousetraps but they did the dirty work. ---
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/3 "2012-04-12T20:19:26Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I assume you mean larger than an insect. > > Not directly. Put out some mousetraps but they did the dirty work. No. I include insects and fish. 🙂 The question is pretty broad: have you killed _anything_ before in your life? The question is not “have you killed anything larger than an insect?” ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/4 "2012-04-12T20:19:36Z")
Yes. Bugs, all the time. I have set mouse traps in the house about 15 years ago. I once killed a bird with my car. When I was a kid we did cruel stuff to frogs that involved firecrackers. Oh, we burned ants with magnifying glasses, and probably pulled legs and stuff off grasshoppers and spiders, etc. before squashing them. I think that’s about the extent of it. ETA: And, of course fish. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/5 "2012-04-12T20:24:31Z")
> [@SDMBKL](#): > > No. I include insects and fish. 🙂 > > The question is pretty broad: have you killed _anything_ before in your life? The question is not “have you killed anything larger than an insect?” Then the answer is obviously yes for most people. Hell, you kill germs when you brush your teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/6 "2012-04-12T20:26:08Z")
I’ve killed untold numbers of microbes, plenty of insects, quite a few mice, and I once ran over a rabbit with my car. This summer I will learn to kill chickens my ownself, but I have caused innumerable pigs, cows and poultry to be killed on my behalf. Oh, and fish. ---
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/7 "2012-04-12T20:26:38Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Then the answer is obviously yes for most people. Hell, you kill germs when you brush your teeth. Don’t forget that your lymphocytes do some killing too! It’s a dog-eat-dog microscopic world! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/8 "2012-04-12T20:30:54Z")
A handful of people will vote no, 1 or 2 just because the lure of voting for the underdog in such a lopsided poll is simply too strong, and maybe 2 people because they wrongly think that they actually never have killed anything in their life. But everyone on this earth has killed something. Most likely directly cause millions of things that were once alive to cease living, every day. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/9 "2012-04-12T20:31:18Z")
Besides bugs and spiders, when I was volunteering at a wild animal rescue, I killed rats and rabbits to feed to the other critters (mostly raptors, in the non-extinct sense). We also fed them baby chicks, but those came frozen. In case anyone is wondering, we gassed them. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/10 "2012-04-12T20:35:34Z")
When I was 13, one of my cats had kittens. She had them in a tucked away location. I checked them out once to make sure they were alright and they were. Then some days later, I checked them out again and they both had a leg ripped off or gnawed off. It seemed to me they weren’t going to make it. I would have peferred to take them to a vet for euthanasia but I discovered them in the evening and I didn’t want them to have to wait until the following morning in that condition. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/11 "2012-04-12T20:40:14Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > I’ve killed untold numbers of microbes, plenty of insects, quite a few mice, and I once ran over a rabbit with my car. This. And lobsters. ---
**Author:** ![nudgenudge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9f8e36/32.png) [@nudgenudge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nudgenudge)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/12 "2012-04-12T20:44:17Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > When I was 13, one of my cats had kittens. She had them in a tucked away location. I checked them out once to make sure they were alright and they were. > > Then some days later, I checked them out again and they both had a leg ripped off or gnawed off. It seemed to me they weren’t going to make it. > > I would have peferred to take them to a vet for euthanasia but I discovered them in the evening and I didn’t want them to have to wait until the following morning in that condition. And? Come on, you can’t leave the story there. I mean, I vaguely know what’s coming, but you’ve piqued my ghoulish interest. What was it, baseball bat? Weighted bag + immersion in water? ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/13 "2012-04-12T20:46:33Z")
And what chewed the legs off? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/14 "2012-04-12T20:46:41Z")
Yeah fish. Only for eating though. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/15 "2012-04-12T20:49:54Z")
> [@nudgenudge](#): > > And? Come on, you can’t leave the story there. I mean, I vaguely know what’s coming, but you’ve piqued my ghoulish interest. What was it, baseball bat? Weighted bag + immersion in water? I convinced my father in law to twist their necks. He wanted to drown them. One of them reacted by shaking and I hit it. Thereafter it didn’t move. I thought my way would be the quickest, least painful way to kill them but looking back, I could have found better and I really wish I had. My only excuse is that I was 13. Marconi, I don’t know. If I had to guess, I think it would be that the kittens got their legs stuck in the fabric of their nest and either they or their mother did it. I don’t know though. I was careful to give the mother a lot of privacy and not bother her or her kittens much so I only saw them twice in about one month. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/16 "2012-04-12T20:50:52Z")
Definitely. 3 kittens. 1 gerbil. 2 hamsters. Thousands of spiders. Millions of roaches. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/17 "2012-04-12T20:56:08Z")
Lots and lots of lab rats and mice. House mice. Bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/18 "2012-04-12T20:57:28Z")
That sounds very upsetting, **MichaelEmouse** , I’m sorry. I have to ask, though: > [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I convinced my father in law … \ My only excuse is that I was 13. Father in law? Surely you weren’t married at 13? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/19 "2012-04-12T20:58:25Z")
Just bugs, I think. I’ve caught a couple of fish, but other people did the actual killing. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601/20 "2012-04-12T21:00:42Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > That sounds very upsetting, **MichaelEmouse** , I’m sorry. > > I have to ask, though: > > Father in law? Surely you weren’t married at 13? You’re right. My ESL skills have deserted me. I meant my mother’s SO. Ah, now I remember it, stepfather. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-killed-anything-before-in-your-life/618601.md?page=2)