cyrnel

I broke their necks. They died. Twitching, clinging, then letting go. They are quiet now, while my soul boils.

It only gets worse. In years past I would boast of being unaffected. Of being accustomed to violent death. But that would be a lie. It was never easy. The only familiarity is with the growing nightmare. I want to vomit. For hours. Anything that might expel the feeling from my head. Make the images go away. Images of life ending at my hand. Of the eyes.

But the bodies will be discovered. That would be untidy. I need to act. Like an automaton I take the cooling corpses outside. Conceal and dispose. Put them in a safe place. I work quickly, efficiently, as if in a well-rehearsed scene. Avoiding attention but without appearing suspicious. I close the door with finality against pleas for help they could never voice. Finally it's over. The act completed.

Now to cover my tracks. Go over my story one last time. One last time. With luck this will end without incident, just as all my previous killings. But whatever happens now those mice will never leave prizes in my garage again.

Mousetraps are gross.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

robot_parade

Nice, creepy, story.

But...dude. Get a cat.

We *used* to have a problem with small rodents in the garden outside...never noticed signs of any inside, but still annoying.

Now? Nothing.

Thanks, Eskay, you cute and cuddly killing machine!

maleficent

YOU KILLED MICKEY!!!! MURDERER!!!

*** CRIES UNCONTROLLABLY***

I'ma big baby...

The rat poisin that the mouse eats, and makes him all petrify is better then cleaning mouse traps.. but you might find the mousey in odd places...

My parents house in connecticut used to get mice - and bats all the time... until they got Mittens the killer kitty.. then the mice problem went away... but she'd occassionally bring mauled mouse presents..

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cyrnel

Cats are great for that, until they leave prizes on your pillow. Now that was a sick & twisted kitty. Guess it was intended as my cut as boss of the house. The (ex)girlfriend was not pleased to find one nearly in her ear.

Then there's the risk of an impotent cat. My sister has one that apparently thinks his gaze is enough to kill. It will watch mice and sort of squint then go wide-eyed then squint again. Never doing more than shifting its body to keep the mouse in sight until actual exertion would be required. Then he goes inside to eat and watch the TV. I call him Gort.

Anyway, yes I felt bad after killing Mickey & Minnie. It was distressing to be working, hear the *SNAP* and actually see one perish. The part about feeling ill wasn't far from the mark.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Destrox

Eh , careful with the kitties....

My one cat started off small with mice, moles, and voles.... Typically leaving some part of the body or inners on the patio. Then moved onto birds, and rabbits.

How this cat that weighs a little over 7 pounds is able to take down a full grown rabbit that easily is 150% of its weight, i dont know. Then to make matters worse, she'll come inside and on rare occasions puke up what she just ate.....

That is the worse smell ever might I say....

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You bore me.... next.

genuinegirly

Bummer about the pillow presents. There's a good way of dealing with that: bedroom is off-limits.

hmmmm.
i still say get a cat. You list the exceptions as though they are the norm.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

Redlemon

The cat of a friend of mine brought a freshly-killed HAWK to the front door one day. She also saw it facing down a wolf one time.

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Elphaba

and the cat that treed a bear, twice?

maleficent

back when I had a kitty cat... patty was a scrawny little cat.. she was up at the park with me one day-- on a leash - and a doberman doggie came sniffing around her - Patty would have none of that - she looked up at this dog who had a good 80 pounds on her.. hissed.. raised a paw (didn't touch the dog) the dog yelped - looked like it had just been castrated and wth it's tail between it's legs went back to it's owner where it gotyelled at for being terrorized by a kitten...

Cats are badass...

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snowy

My parents just adopted 2 little kitties from a coworker of mine--their names are Rough and Tumble (and they could not describe these kittens better). They love to terrorize our dog, who's a 8-year-old black lab/greyhound mix.

Just the other day my mom called me up and told me this story:

Jack always follows Mom around the house. So one afternoon she looks up and notices that Jack is nowhere in her line of sight. So she calls him. All she gets in reply is silence, so she calls again. Then she gets a whine. She is starting to get a little irritated, so she calls Jack yet again in a more commanding tone. Jack this time replies with several whines, so she knows that something must be up. She goes to investigate and finds Jack sitting several feet away from the pets' communal water bowl, which has been turned over and spilled all over the kitchen. Now, when Jack sees my mom, he leads her over to where Rough was sitting, and points his nose at her, to say she did it. What a tattle-tale!

It's so funny--they're so much smaller than he is that he is afraid he will hurt them, so now they're running the house and Mom has to remind poor Jack that he's the boss.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

*Nikki*

Ever heard of a HUMANE mouse trap?? I don't get it why people feel like they have to kill everything....am I the only one who respects other life forms? So we are the superior race, that howver doesn't make everything else inferior to us!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=...20mouse%20trap

eribrav

Mice are vermin. I'm not interested in trapping them, I'm interested in killing them. Left unchecked they become a tremendous nuisance, getting into all sort of things and making a mess.

Elphaba

The first time Golda, my psycho Siamese from hell, confronted a mouse, she sat down and purred. The mouse seemed pleased as well.

level five

cats are like women...they have claws. no wonder everyone and everything are afraid of them!!

Toaster126

I respect life. I have an agreement with all creatures, vermin included; you don't come in my house, I won't kill you. I don't find any cognitive dissonance there.

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"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

longbough

If you don't want to commit to a cat ... just "borrow" your friend's cat for a week or two. Of course we assume you already on good terms with the animal.

Rodney

I read somewhere that cats see humans as big dumb cats who don't know how to feed themselves. So when they kill something, they bring it to you as a present. They a) believe you need the food and b) hope you'll get the idea and start taking care of yourself.

So this very gross-seeming act is about as close to pure altruism as a cat will ever get.

Humane traps are fun, but not always an option. The last time I used mousetraps I lived in the middle of a big city and I didn't have a car. Where was I going to set the mouse loose where it just wouldn't become somebody else's problem.

Finally, having a cat can simply warn off mice so that they don't come onto the premises. Back in the big city I got tired of killing mice, so I got a cat. They stopped coming into my flat. They kept coming into the flat about mine, but didn't visit my place anymore.

eribrav

If I could get that in writing, with a clause that included staying out of my shed as well, then we'd have a deal. Until then, there will be periodic skirmishes with heavy murine casualties

snowy

I figure that I'm at the top of the food chain for a reason. Like everyone else said--mice are vermin. My folks had a mouse problem that started up shortly after both of our cats had passed away. It was as if the mice knew that there was no longer a cat on the premises. They started getting into the cabinets, nibbling at the food, running across the dishes--you literally could not safely use a dish in the cupboard without washing it off first, and you had to inspect the food in the cupboard to make sure the packaging hadn't been nibbled at. Dad was having to clear the traps out daily, and the mice were getting bold--dashing across the living room and all over the house.

Needless to say, my parents acquired two kittens very shortly thereafter. The kittens have not caught anything yet, but their mere presence has been enough to keep the mice at bay.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

cyrnel

Confronted? As in strong verbal discourse? I'm trying to comprehend a mouse pleased by any other outcome from a cat encounter.

*Nikki*, if you haven't already bolted, the original reason for my post was to get feedback on my gut reaction. On my wimpification. I felt quite bad after watching the mouse die. But what I typed immediately turned to Poe-Jr Psycho. Sorry if it came off like bravado.

-Wimp

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

longbough

If I swim in shark infested waters I should not be surprised to get eaten by a shark.

If I wandered into bear-country I should not be surprised to get mauled by a bear.

My home is people-country. A mouse ought to know better than to come here.

analog

Me either.

The other main issue being that the mouse came from outside. If you trap it humanely, where are you planning on releasing it? Back outside where they came from?

If we're superior then that does, in fact, make everything else inferior. I mean, that's the entire point and meaning of the word, and the distinction for which it stands.

Maybe what you meant is that just because everything is inferior, that doesn't give us the right to kill it.

To this argument (not to you, specifically) I say: Until a person grows every morsel of food they eat, and cotton they use to spin into clothing, and erect the home they live in with their bare hands with tools they made themselves, create/harness electricity using purely ecological means, dig a well for water, and use nothing but rewashable cloth diapers for their children (where applicable), I don't want to hear any bullshit about "unnecessarily killing an innocent animal".

Because they're already doing it, over and over, by consuming these products and using these services- they just don't have to think about it until the rats or mice are in their garage or shed, and you have to dispose of the body yourself. They have diseases. They set up nests and reproduce more. People have a responsibility to protect their home and their family, and the "catch and release" method is not optimal for this task, simply because you'd have to drive the captured rodent some distance from your home just to be sure it won't go right back to where you found it. Not everyone has that kind of time- and it's just one more animal in the long list that die to bring us all the comforts of home and foods we eat.

*Nikki*

I am sorry but my arguement is very valid. I did not mean to say anything other then what I did say. Yes, people use products and consume animals everyday. However this does not mean that when given the oppertunity to SAVE the life of an innocent creature, one should not do so. So what if this involves driving up the street to place said rodent in an alternate location. Heaven forbid we have to do a little extra work to save the life of something rather then taking the lazy way out. I realize also that me saying this odviously has little or no effect on the decisions that people will make on this topic. This does not mean that I should remain voiceless in this matter. Hopefully in the future more people will learn to respect life other then theirs, no matter how large or small, or numerous the creature may be.

Their is ALWAYS an alternative to choosing to kill something.

magictoy

Sometimes the alternatives are lousy. People always seem more sympathetic to furry things than to, say, rattlesnakes or alligators, too.

I'm not big on preserving the lives of mosquitoes, ants, and roaches, either.

cookmo

Those mice are not there as innocent creatures, they are there to loot and pillage.

guthmund

Exactly. I stake the heads of those captured at the entrances to my home to keep their brethren at bay. And a moat...yes, a big moat.

They invade my house, they eat my food, and they shit everywhere. Sure I could catch them and release them to the wild, but when I consider the posibility they could be harboring some dangerous disease...well, I suddenly don't have a problem with killing them.

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analog

I agree, absolutely. However, we're not talking about mice in a cage at the pet store. We're talking about wild rodents invading your home. That is not an innocent creature by any means. They don't want to share your living space, they want to inhabit it. They don't share your compassion when they chew holes in the infrastructure of your home, allowing more vermin, bugs, etc. into it. They also carry diseases. You don't want a bunch of rodents, diseased or otherwise, inhabiting your home. Seriously. Also, when you have an animal, you will also see their natural predators. So now that rodents have set up shop in your home, the holes they've created for themselves serve as a doorway for snakes, who prey on them. Now you've got rodents and snakes. I'm not going for hyperbole here, that's what happens.

I don't disagree with you, I think it's a good idea to take the time to do that, though unless you release them into the middle of a big wooded area, you may just be moving the rodent near to someone else's house.

Totally, sharing viewpoints is what it's all about. And you never know, you may just push someone on the edge into feeling a little more empowered to do "their part".

I think that, for many people, it's not a matter of having disrespect for animals, so much as it's a personal feeling of balance that doesn't happen to favor the animal. Rodents cannot be in my home. I cannot drive out to uninhabited territories to safely dump every rodent that infiltrates my home. Many people live in areas where there's no such thing as "away from inhabited areas" anywhere near them at all.

That's a pretty tall order of a generalization. I won't bother pointing out in what ways and to what extent it's a totally unreasonable thing to say, that would not serve to enrich the discussion at all.

I will only say this: the safety and health of my family is more important than a rodent. No rodent's life is worth more than the health and safety of a human.

Carno

Hahahahaha... that cracked me up.

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snowy

Arggh, matey. Give us your booty or else we'll poop on your dishes...arrggh.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

MexicanOnABike

I have to agree with the "kill the roddent" side. we had a mouse infestation in our shed and it was horrible. so we killed them all. i think. the cat took care of the rest for us.

but there was no fucking way i was going to release these mouse back into the wild! they destroyed too much so they had to pay.

i did the same with the squirrel invasion a few years ago! my pellet gun was so fucking useful!

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*Nikki*

A very good quote we could all learn from:

"I believe that humane education is the basis for social reform. Through teaching respect for all life, we will be able to decrease all forms of abuse: animal, environmental, child and spouse. By learning and practicing respect, we cannot help but build our own self-esteem and worth. The human race must learn that we are all part of nature and contribute equally to the survival of all species. The throwaway mentality of today cannot continue." Clare Wetzel

longbough

Then consider my use of mousetraps a form of social protest.

Toaster126

I don't think anyone said anything about wiping out a species... and I for one, respect life in all its forms. That doesn't mean the critters aren't dying if they are in my shit.

__________________
"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

*Nikki*

While I don't see mice as an endangered species, I think the quote is wonderful without picking it apart.

Sometimes picking things apart digresses from the true meaning of the original startement as a whole.

longbough

Who says mice can't be dangerous? http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=107634

cyrnel

Heh. I saw that gun a few days back but the mouse connection hadn't occurred to me. What did occur to me was the size of that guy's hand. NFL, anyone? He really needs to rethink his grip selection.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

magictoy

Not to mention figuring out how you're going to pull the trigger on that thing.

Most "derringers" don't have trigger guards.