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Cruelty to living things?...am i over reacting?

30 replies

noonar · 09/11/2006 19:41

I just got back from a long weekend with my in laws, including SIL and her BF.

we stayed in a lovely house, but there were quite few flies in the conservatory. one afternoon, everyone was in the conservatory when i walked in and was horrified to see SIL's BF hoovering up the flies on the ceiling with the hose attachment of the hoover

now, although i can see the comedy value in this post, i was absolutely fuming. everyone was hooting with laughter, but i was furious about the message this was sending to dds, aged 2 and 4. how can i expect them to learn respect for living things, with this behaviour as an example?

am i over reacting? how is it that the other 5 adults all thought that this was acceptable/ funny??

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Jimjams2 · 09/11/2006 19:43

Erm I think you're over-reacting tbh. What do you do with flies? I prefer to get rid of them, they spread disease.

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Angeliz · 09/11/2006 19:43

I hate that too.
DP swears i was a Catholic buddist in a former life with my guilt and morals

Really though, i'm with you.

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HRHQueenOfQuotes · 09/11/2006 19:45

Overreacting I think - I remember pulling the legs of daddy long legs when I was (much) younger......doesn't mean I'm cruel to animals now!

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noonar · 09/11/2006 19:46

ok, if people want get rid of pests, i'm not going to preach about it. it was the idea that it was a huge joke that got me. would you want your children to find this funny?

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SherlockLGJ · 09/11/2006 19:47

Flies eat shit, then they land on our food and regurgitate.

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Blandmum · 09/11/2006 19:47

I think that you are over reacting. They land on your food, vomit over it to spread digestive enzymes on it, wait for it to be broken down and then suck up the mix of food/ house fly vomit. they may well have visited a big steaming pile of crap and done the same thing before they visit your food

These are not an endangered species, but a wildly common insect that spreads disease

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southeastastra · 09/11/2006 19:49

what sort of flies were they? i've often found it quite hard to hoover them up

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Jimjams2 · 09/11/2006 19:50

TBH I just wouldn't care- I'd be horrified if they were being cruel to a cat or something- maybe my mammal-centric view. DS1 finds other kids screaming and crying absolutely hilarious- I'm more concerned that he'll get lamped for that one day. I think you can explainj to your kids that you don't like it, but I do think you'll be hard pressed to make the world a caring place towards insects (invertebrates in general). I've hoovered up cockcroaches before (abroad). Had no idea what else I could do with them tbh.

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aweebitgross · 09/11/2006 19:52

Agree with MB. I might not have laughed at them being sucked up by the hoover, but I wouldn't have objected either.

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Trinityrhino · 09/11/2006 19:52

flies are horrid things that shit on our food, they need to be killed as do wasps

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noonar · 09/11/2006 19:56

i hate the little b*stards too, tbh, it was the turning it into a joke that i objected too, as i said earlier. i was concerned that dds wouldnt make the distinction between cruelty to insects/ mammals.

later, dd1 said ' why did x kill the flies?' and i didnt know what to say.

next day, dd2 came into the room clutching a fly in her hand that dd1 said she had killed. coincidence?

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juuule · 09/11/2006 20:13

I"m with you, Noonar. Killing flies and such might be a necessity to stop the spread of diseases but I would be uncomfortable of making a joke of taking a life even if it was an insect.

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noonar · 09/11/2006 20:17

thanks juules and angeliz, and for other differing views.

i agree with everything thats been said about them spreading disease. and i could see the 'black humour' in it- but not in front of young children, surely?

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Jimjams2 · 09/11/2006 20:23

"why did x kill the flies?"

"because they spread disease and make people sick. "

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venusinfurs · 09/11/2006 20:25

Hmm...I'm a vegetarian who can't even kill spiders, which I hate but I do think it's a teeny bit of an over-reaction. Sorry. Flies are just filthy - they don't have rights in my book.

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noonar · 09/11/2006 20:40

well i'm clearly in the minority

this is one of the things that fascinates me about MN, you can post your view, feel certain that you are right and that most reasonable people will agree with you....and then they don't. LOL!

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wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 09/11/2006 21:01

they only live for 4 days (dont know if this is true but I hope it is LOL)

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twinkle5 · 10/11/2006 22:17

noonar, I TOTALLY agree with you! On holiday in the swimming pool with DH I pointed out an insect on the edge of the pool. At which point he filled his hands with water and drowned it. I didn't speak to him for an hour!

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saadia · 10/11/2006 22:32

noonar I completely agree with you. I hate flies as much as anyone but would not make a joke out of this. In fact since I had dss I have really gone out of my way to emphasise kindness to living things to the extent that ds tries to feed grapes to ants and even brought a dead half-eaten mouse in from the garden because he thought it was sleeping.

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Greensleeves · 10/11/2006 22:35

I agree about the humour being misplaced, killing flies because they are disease-spreading pests is a necessity - but laughing about it/enjoying it veers towards cruelty IMO. I wouldn't be happy for my children to see this at all.

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edam · 10/11/2006 22:38

I can see why you were worried. But I can also see the comedy value in hoovering flies off the ceiling - it's just an absurd situation.

Personally I'm happy to kill flies despite being veggie but I do try to teach ds respect for all living things. Sadly he seems to have some innate 3yo boy reaction to insects and worms which involves squashing/killing them. In desperation I asked my elderly neighbour to tell him not to stamp on worms yesterday (we were passing his garden). Hasn't stamped on any since so I'm hoping it might have done the trick..

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2ndtime · 11/11/2006 18:36

Killing anything for fun is out of order as is torturing by pulling legs off etc.

However, getting rid of something that is hazzardous to humans, like flies, in a swift efficient manner, like a hoover, is totally acceptable to me.

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Chandra · 11/11/2006 18:45

This sort of threads make me feel an abominable human being, there's a very still fly to the side of my conputer... I have been wondering for the last few minutes whether I should risk waking her up (provided she is not dead yet...) or just hit it with a magazine.

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hamstermunker · 11/11/2006 18:57

Crikey, if that's what passes for top drawer entertainment at your ILs, you must have had a dull weekend!

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rustybear · 11/11/2006 19:00

But Greensleeves - it's OK to laugh about cooking a hamster????

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