Pet cats toy with the mice they catch before killing them.

Yeah, and I don't like it any more. My cats get purina, nine lives and science diet. And, YES, Devi captures the occasional random mouse that makes it into my apartment. Sigh. And drops it in my bed.

The difference to me is whether the, um, food, is for the benefit of the pet or the petkeeper. I had a friend whose ball python would eat nothing but live prey. OK, can deal. Oook, but can deal. It'd starve otherwise. But really, gators? Eat butchered flesh or marshmallows or whatever ALL THE TIME. Hell, I fed them. Kittens? That's for the fucking fuckness of the owner. You domesticate a creature, you make up new rules, sorry, not going to give you a pass.

You wanna pass? Go make yourself lunch. Or leave the critter be. Cat? Domesticated. Gator? Yeah, just try me.

Domesticated animals and pets aren't wild animals. They're not (usually) going to starve if they don't get live prey. It's not even going to hurt them mentally or emotionally if they don't get live prey.

Giving a pet a live animal to eat is more of a thrill for the pet owner than for the pet and it's sick no matter how I look at it. It doesn't matter if it's a rat, a bunny or a bird.

But that's just me.

And yeah, if I were raised in another culture (like wherever it is that cats=good stew meat), I'd likely have another tack. But in this culture? Not Acceptable. There are alternatives. Ones that don't involve potential pets.( and I realize there is a dearth of potential cat homes. Hell, I've payed for kitty abortions. Doesn't make them food any more to me.)

ION, Sarah Vowell is my girlfriend.

Does she know about the Mars thing?

Nope.

I'll have to work my way up to that....

Lesson plans is hard.

Yep, Emily. Sometimes they are. That's why I opt not to use any.

Alas, I'ma get graded on this. And then, in a week, on another one.

Plus I'm trying to satisfy both classes' requirements in one lesson plan -- so backwards design, essential questions, and enduring understandings and catering to four different learning styles, multiple intelligences, and detailing possible accomodations/modifications. I mean, I think it'll be a good exercise and worthwhile, but... hard. Which makes me pouty.

SO Brad Pitt was not a big delicate flower of a babyman for going to the hospital with a touch of flu--he had viral meningitis.

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Some dicksmack here in town was feeding kittens to his pet alligator. He's in jail tonight on $72,000 bond after throwing the cat at animal control officers and for being a smart ass to the judge. He said he could do "anything he wanted, it's only a kitten."

He could feed it any meat to keep it alive. He's getting his kicks by watching a small cute animal suffer at the hands of his bad-ass pet. I think his intent goes a long way to determine what is "cruel" and what is "humane".

This. That's the part that bothers me. I mean, it would still be weird if he could go buy pre-dead, frozen kittens, because I think of cats as "pets" and cow as "food." But it's the idea of making the kittens suffer like that -- that's what really bothers me.

For me, I think it is (aside from the owner clearly doing this for kicks) an issue, like Cashmere said later, of the species being domesticated as pets, and treated like prey. Also, it's not like the gator happened to get a kitten that wandered into the yard. That's natural, and no different from the gator eating a steak. The man was feeding the kittens to them. I also think snake owners who buy live mice for their snakes are mean. If you think it is cool that Animal X is a predator, don't get one as a pet, and if you do, don't use a domesticated animal as prey.