Before I start my hijack, let me say that the Kitten-Crusher is a vile human being who should have his balls ripped off with a plastic fork.:mad:
That being said:
I used to work as a pest control technician, or contract killer, hired assassin, etc.
I used to inject various toxic fogs into structural voids in anticipation of hordes of roaches pouring out and “break dancing” (you know, when they flip over on their backs, spin around, wiggle their legs, and generally spaz to death).
Further hijack of my hijack: When I was new, I noticed other techs stamping their feet every few seconds during roach “cleanouts.” It didn’t occur to me why they did this until several of them cracked up at my “roach crawled up my pants and is now on my balls dance.”
Anyhow, what if there’s a God and It’s a Very Large, Very Pissed Off Roach?
Or a mouse? I had one customer I referred to as “Mouscwitz,” because twice a week, I removed 15-20 dead mice from the place.
Add thousands of dead rats to my name.
Oh, in my karmic favor:
When removing raccoons, opossums, and squirrels, we used humane live trapping (impossible to do with rats and mice, since they tend to infest a place and invite all their friends over, making live trapping completely ineffective at protecting customers’ property and health from their depredations). We were required at the time by Washington State law to drown or otherwise kill the trapped critters, otherwise they would simply go back to the place they were trapped, and they’d be wily this time. I couldn’t bring myself to do that, so I’d release them at a river near my home. Never heard one word about any of them going back to a customer’s.
I would never kill anyone’s pet mouse or rat, though. I would never have a pet, like a snake, that required me to feed them rats or mice.
If our cats kill birds, mice, or rats, well, they’re hunters. Also, I might have seen my cats kill a bug, but that’s about it.
Anyhow, I used to kill bugs and animals for a living, and I had a rather twisted sense of humor about it. However, the killing had a purpose: the protection of the property and health of those that hired my company. Did I get off on it? No, it was a job. Like I said, I’d make some pretty sick jokes about it, especially with my colleagues, but there was no pleasure on my part in killing for killing’s sake.
As for animals being killed for food: I don’t see it as being gratuitously vicious like Kitten-Crusher’s stunt. Animals killed for food are killed as quickly and efficiently as possible, since it’s an industry. They aren’t slowly crushed to death in front of someone who loves them. Sometimes the killing gets bungled in a slaughterhouse. Ever work in an assembly line? I have, and after having done so, I am amazed there aren’t more defective products being sold.
In short, andros, I’m agreeing with you. Animals killed for food are done so in the most efficient way that is profitable. Doing it humanely is not a high consideration. I still eat meat, though.
Most of the rodent poisons we used were anticoagulants: the rodents died of severe internal bleeding. Other rodenticides we used were severely restricted, due to their extreme toxicity. We only used them under strictly controlled circumstances. Anyway, I don’t imagine death from internal bleeding, or, as in most bugs’ cases, severe central nervous system poisoning, can be very pleasant.
May Og have mercy on this bug and rodent massacring atheist.