The Killing Guilt

[loripo]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

Sounds like fly pupae being crushed.

How do you know that

[wizzo]

I was painting some iron railings for a customer recently. It seemd like every few inches or so, I managed to inadvertantly coat a tiny little spider in a think gloopy blob of oil based Hammerite paint. These 'cute' little spiders were just going about their business, hiding in the little looped areas of the railing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't clear them out. It was a terrible sight, watching the poor little things struggling to free themselves. Then to make things worse, a small swarm of Ladybirds decided to use the areas I'd painted, as a runway. It was pure carnage! I often travel to Dorset and I refuse to travel after dusk for fear of hitting a Badger. It's nothing to see a half dozen dead Badgers on a round trip - very sad!

[BloomingMarvellous]

Mmmmmmmmm, had a long hard think before replying to this thread. I had a day this year that I think effected me for life... and It started off with this Little Fella falling into the Pond and me being around at the right time and the right place to pull him out and take a few photo's of him.



This Little Fella amused me throughout the Day until a Damselfly came along that I recognized from about a month ago, I had pulled it out of the Pond only to notice that it had a broken wing...



I was so excited that I forgot about the Weevil for a minute, the Damselfly flew off and I returned to the Weevil that had been entertaining me throughout the day, the Weevil was being very patient with me and letting me take It's photo at different angle's... and then It hit me, the Weevil was dead and I had killed It, I had knelt on it whilst taking a photo of the Damselfly with the broken Wing...



and then it hit me, I had just taken a load of photos of a Weevil that had just had It's entire insides squashed out of It.


Yes, this certainly effected me...

[Gill Catton]

Oh what a thread! Yes I suffer from this, I used to be really bad and I too wonder if it resulted from watching older kids torture a crane fly while I felt every bit of the pain I though it must be feeling utterly unable to rescue it.... Recently I've tried to stop this as there have been a few times where I've needed to put something out of it's misery (even only by driving over it) and have failed or really struggled to do it - which only then results in more suffering for the animal. I also HAD to do something to protect my veggies from slugs and snails so have hardened myself to that, but I throw them into my small pond for the rat-tailed maggots and chronomids so at least I can feel I've done some good!

[Jason Green]

OK... confession time. Today I walked head-first into a spiders web. Having realised I was destroying his/her web I stepped back. Onto what? Yes, you've guessed it - a snail. In the space of a few seconds I've now taken out a web... and a poor snail. Oops...

[Susie]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

Mmmmmmmmm, had a long hard think before replying to this thread. I had a day this year that I think effected me for life... and It started off with this Little Fella falling into the Pond and me being around at the right time and the right place to pull him out and take a few photo's of him.



This Little Fella amused me throughout the Day until a Damselfly came along that I recognized from about a month ago, I had pulled it out of the Pond only to notice that it had a broken wing...



I was so excited that I forgot about the Weevil for a minute, the Damselfly flew off and I returned to the Weevil that had been entertaining me throughout the day, the Weevil was being very patient with me and letting me take It's photo at different angle's... and then It hit me, the Weevil was dead and I had killed It, I had knelt on it whilst taking a photo of the Damselfly with the broken Wing...



and then it hit me, I had just taken a load of photos of a Weevil that had just had It's entire insides squashed out of It.


Yes, this certainly effected me...

I kill weevils all the time and don't think anything of it. It's amazing how weevil grubs can destroy all the roots on a plant in next to no time.

[clackdish]

dont know wether this will cheer you up, but a man was watching tv when there was a knock on the door, it was a good programme so he ignored it, but the caller persisted and eventually the man got up and answered the door in a not to pleasant mood, flinging the door wide open to berate the caller he couldnt see any one, he was just about to go back inside when a small voice called out "excuse me" looking down the man saw a snail on the step, "excuse me " said the snail again, when the man reached down in a fit of pique and picked up the snail he threw it as far as he could over the fence before flouncing back inside to finish watching the tv, the following week the man was watching the second episode of the programme when again there was a knock at the door, not believing anyone could do this to him again he ran to the door and threw it wide open, again no one was there he was about to go back inside when he heard a small voice say "oy" looking down he saw the snail again on his step, the snail looked up at him and said "what did you do that for !!!!!!!!!! "

well it made me smile

[loripo]

I like that - especially 'the following week' bit! My daughter used to do that with all her snails, lob them into next doors garden, but they all seemed to come back again, they liked her veg better than the weeds next door.

[Dutchess]

Gill's post reminded me of a scenario I saw once in the playground of my local park, I was just a wee toddler at the time, but it haunts me to this day. A group of older boys were cutting the wings off ladybirds with a razor blade Why do (some) kids do this sort of thing???

I don't drive an awful lot myself, so I suppose by law of averages I have escaped the killing guilt when it comes to road accidents, but I was upset earlier on this year when I knocked down my first wild animal (to my knowledge, of course.) It was a grey squirrel but it made one heck of a crunch for such a small animal

I think I have mentioned this before, but when in Florida in the rainy season, one stormy night on returning to our residence, there were lots of tiny frogs jumping aroound on the road ahead. Yep! I got out and walked ahead of the car, in the pouring rain, shoo-ing them all away! Risking life and limb (i.e. alligators!! lol! ) The locals thought I was crazy....maybe I am.

D.

[rangersarah2]

Talking about rescuing things (surely a better subject):
I spend a couple of hours a week rescuing toads, frogs and newts out to the roadside drains. Bit smelly, but better than letting them drown. I also drop pieces of wood down so that they have something to sit while they await rescue.

Give it a try, it's very satisfying. You'll make new friends too - people always stop to ask why you've got your head stuck down the drains. But don't get run over.