This is a vent, but I just have to speak up because I'm livid. On another gardening forum there is a woman who kidnaps wildlife (salamanders, toads, newts, etc.), sticks them in a box with grass clippings, and her justification? "So my kids will learn about wildlife." She knows nothing about the poor creatures--her last post was to ask what the red back salamander eats. She had taken it prisoner, presumably for the edification of her children, who are learning to put their grubby little hands on anything that moves. She posts that those who tell her to release her captive now, just need not answer her post. It isn't Christian of me, and I'm not a bit ashamed, because I sincerely hope she picks up something aggressive and venomous, and needs both a stay in the hospital and plastic surgery.
I feel the same way about people who 'rescue' caterpillars and keep them in a container for pupating. Leave nature alone!!!
And how is that teaching her kids anything ? Taking them out of the natural environment and feeding them something that may not be on their menu.. Tell her if she want her kids to learn about nature to get off their butts and go outside. Make them learn the same way we did. By getting stung, bitten and having a rash or two,, picking thorns and splinters and getting sticky stuff on your clothes. Does not take much to educate kids about nature using that method.
Mart, in the past I've offered to send her booklets from Texas Parks & Wildlife about providing for wildlife (plants for nectar and hosting, feeders, etc.) and also backyard birds. She wasn't interested. I fear her children are going to grow up feeling "entitled" to do what they please, and having no idea about the natural world all around them. It's sad.
I've never taken an animal from the wild unless it was injured or needed help and would never have allowed my children to do so either. I used to take them on nature rambles and we would sit and watch frogs, birds, animals and insects going about their business. In our minds it was far more entertaining to see them in their natural environment doing what they were supposed to do than staring at them in a container or removing them to a (for them) hostile environment. Now all three of my children are deeply interested in nature and we still take long walks with our cameras to 'capture' wildlife. How can children learn about our native species if all they do is stare at them in a jar and watch them slowly dying?
Sometimes it shocks me how much of a sense of entitlement people can have, even to the point of senseless (brainless?) cruelty and destruction - and yes, it makes me angry too - and very, very sad, because it is almost always based in ignorance --- and when someone takes the time and effort to say that they don't want to be bothered with dissenting opinions, then I also know that the person's ignorance is an intentional choice that they are making. A truly shameful example to set for her children.
Sometimes I feel the urge to grab people by their ears, shake thoroughly and ask if something sensible surfaced after the treatment. Such emtpy-headedness provokes me a lot. I do hope people on that forum don't support her actions.
I feel that she is teaching her children the wrong things. There are many beneficial frogs, snakes and insects that help our gardens and lives and need to stay where they are just doing their thing. I will admit that I have caught snakes, lizards, frogs or what ever. I would even put them in a gallon jar with whatever natural habitat the animal was used to so the could kids examine it while I told them how they helped keep our gardens free of bugs and any other information I had but then it was time to turn them lose in the same place they were found. I am not taking credit for my children (not much anyway ) but all of my children are animal lovers and have passed it down to their children.
There will always be people like that....not much we can do because they don't listen to logic, not sure if it was how she was raised or what the reason....they just believe everything they say or do is correct...like she is perfect!!! I have never met another perfect person like myself...chuckle, chuckle...I keep teasing my husband with that bit of nonsense... Now keep from falling out of your chairs with laughter, it was a joke...LOL But there are soooooooooooo many people that do believe they are the cats meow...
I never cared for the kids when I was younger that did that. But your anger over it brings me to ask if you are as against hunting and fishing and trapping.
