Today I was responsible for the unnecessary death of a living creature who fought hard for his life.
Not by intention, but accidentally. The death was intentional. At the time I thought it was necessary, but later found out it wasn't necessary. It was an honest mistake, made according to my best judgement at the time. Nevertheless, I feel sad.
I live in Texas, where we have all 4 venomous snakes found in North America. We have found rattlesnakes in our yard about 20 times in as many years. (We live on the edge of town.) I have lost at least 10 cats to rattlesnakes over the years, and managed to saved a dog or cat from snakebite several other times (along with an exorbitant vet bill).
Last night, one of my beloved cats was playing with a snake. In the dark, it looked like a rattlesnake. So I was confronted with my own hypothetical situation about whom to save, the cat or the snake. The choice was clear. We killed the snake.
This morning, in the light of day, we realized that it was only a harmless garter snake. (They have similar markings.)
If a bee or wasp gets into my house, I don't kill it. I catch it and release it outside. There's no reason to kill it. I chose to kill this snake because I knew that if I didn't, and it had turned out to be a rattlesnake, it would kill my cat. I could live with that because it was necessary at the time. But the fact that this harmless snake got killed unnecessarily bothers me a lot.
I know there are some people who would be very indignant at what we did. There are ways to capture snakes and release them into the wild, so they needn't be killed. I don't have the skills or resources to do that. I would gladly take the time to learn how to safely catch rattlesnakes, IF I could be assured that the place I was releasing them to would not pose a risk to anyone else. But there's no such guarantee. I could not set a deadly snake free out in the country, because a farmer's child might be outside playing. So we did what we had to do, at the time.
It was the unnecessary death that bothered me. The mistake.
Not by intention, but accidentally. The death was intentional. At the time I thought it was necessary, but later found out it wasn't necessary. It was an honest mistake, made according to my best judgement at the time. Nevertheless, I feel sad.
I live in Texas, where we have all 4 venomous snakes found in North America. We have found rattlesnakes in our yard about 20 times in as many years. (We live on the edge of town.) I have lost at least 10 cats to rattlesnakes over the years, and managed to saved a dog or cat from snakebite several other times (along with an exorbitant vet bill).
Last night, one of my beloved cats was playing with a snake. In the dark, it looked like a rattlesnake. So I was confronted with my own hypothetical situation about whom to save, the cat or the snake. The choice was clear. We killed the snake.
This morning, in the light of day, we realized that it was only a harmless garter snake. (They have similar markings.)
If a bee or wasp gets into my house, I don't kill it. I catch it and release it outside. There's no reason to kill it. I chose to kill this snake because I knew that if I didn't, and it had turned out to be a rattlesnake, it would kill my cat. I could live with that because it was necessary at the time. But the fact that this harmless snake got killed unnecessarily bothers me a lot.
I know there are some people who would be very indignant at what we did. There are ways to capture snakes and release them into the wild, so they needn't be killed. I don't have the skills or resources to do that. I would gladly take the time to learn how to safely catch rattlesnakes, IF I could be assured that the place I was releasing them to would not pose a risk to anyone else. But there's no such guarantee. I could not set a deadly snake free out in the country, because a farmer's child might be outside playing. So we did what we had to do, at the time.
It was the unnecessary death that bothered me. The mistake.