To think you don’t catch a butterfly and take it round M&S

Now that's just being ridiculous of course we use one of those humane bolt guns - the puppies barely know what is happening.

Because if you aren't a vegan you might as well kick puppies to death and set fire to kittens most weekends for fun according to some people on here.

I wouldn't have liked to see it sounds like she was being a bit rough with it swinging it about and butterflys are very delicate. I have no problem someone capturing ant popping it into a mesh tent to have a quick look, see the species/if its a boy or girl and write it down before releasing it but to take it out it's habitat for days and not treat it with respect isn't right. Well done you for saying something

Have you seen how brutal pigeons can be? Also, they have wings so can sod off on the grass trying to steal my crumbs whilst I’m enjoying my sandwich - get back in the trees where you belong!

This! You have to be particularly cowardly to address your concerns to a small child rather than their adult parent in such a manner.

It's just training for them. They'll appreciate the fitness when someone's cat chases then with more evil intent then the kids. If the pigeons didn't enjoy it they wouldn't hang round the parks.

Some species do hibernate over winter. My family used to live in a rather cold 16th century converted village pub. Butterfly’s used to hibernate in our house. I never disturbed them. It was glorious when spring came and they all awoke. I felt blessed to witness a miracle of nature in my own home. We released them all into the wild to take their chances and fulfil their biological destiny. Precious memory.

Would you like to be chased by a strange creature many times larger than you?

I do hope that those who are despairing at the thought of a butterfly in a net would be prepared to approach and challenge the owner of every dog they see on a lead about the cruelty of their actions.

Yeah, we really should be encouraging our kids to look after/respect mini beasts.
Spiders and jenny longlegs are my exceptions though, I'm afraid they are kindly evicted from my eyeline.
Think spiders are awesome wee creatures but 😱.
X

Though, i get where you are coming from especially as butterflies are fastly becoming endangered, I think it was confrontational and therefore inappropriate saying that to an 'about 8yr old child'. That's something to be said to her adult only.

For that, YABU.

I wouldn't let my children do this.

I would however also take a very dim view of strangers foisting their opinions on my kids. If you have an issue, talk to the adult in the situation.

Do pigeons have any other purpose?

I was in a school recently where they had cocoons hatching in a net. One hatched but they said they don't let them go until all of them have hatched, which was more than two days (I was only there two days so not sure how long it took).
I don't like to see things that aren't free but I don't think I would have said anything, and at least it will be free in a couple of days. Better than the ones in my garden that keep getting eaten by my cat, which makes me sad.

Enslaved dogs? Do you mean 'dogs'?

Does that mean the defective feline currently debating whether to sleep on

His bed
The sofa
The coffee table
His Amazon box that brought his very expensive food
Halfway up the stairs
The top of the stairs
The corner of the landing where the hot water pipe runs directly underneath on its way to the bathroom
My bed
The spare bed where DP has left his favourite jacket because the cat likes sleeping on it
The office chair in the spare room
The cushion that fell off the sofa five days ago that he commandeered as his latest favourite sleeping spot

or to ask me for another treat because, as a defective animal rescued after being born to a pregnant stray with cat flu, his hunting, killing and standing up without falling over skills aren't exactly up to muster

or to continue is his dilly daydream of getting the big old whitetailed bumble bee that's currently having a productive time in the buddleia outside the window to do something interesting like bring 40 or so of her sisters out to watch

is also a slave? Rather than a very happy, safe and loved member of the family?

Fuck me, if I'd known I wasn't allowed to take pity on creatures on the basis of being given Cow & Gate as a baby, I could have saved myself thousands over the years. And my garden would have been a lot tidier with all the glyphosphates and systemic insecticides to deal with the insects instead of the fully organic environment they have out there, along with being able to use peat and fertilisers to grow huge double flowered, sterile, non nectar producing/accessible to bumbles either with the correct tongue length or the ability to vibrate at middle A in order to extract pollen for protein and nest building flowers that are totally inhospitable and often toxic to mammals plants.

You don’t have to be vegan to care about the natural world. Nor to teach your children to love and respect nature. Butterflies are in decline and should be left be.

YANBU

Quite that kind of what I mean when I say it is odd how people see different animals. In the UK eating a cow no problem, eat a horse and you're a monster.

Exactly, we live in a country where people want to take their pets everywhere they go. I’ve seen a kid in a supermarket with a kitten in a backpack. Nobody seemed to think that was cruel, they were all cooing at how cute it was.

lol at lots of these
also, im not saying i would have said anything (I wouldn’t) or that as a vegan I have a ‘special’ allowance to criticise other people’s treatment of any creature (I definitely don’t), but I do t think you do either.
i don’t care really if one butterfly is sadly caught in a net or one chicken is kept in a dark cage so you can eat it. I do find it disturbing that people can discriminate so explicitly between the value of life in one species vs another.

Confronting a little girl isn’t the big brave activist win you think it is.

I don’t think it matters if they let it go afterwards. I’d find it gross if they killed it.