Disappointed to see yet more posts finding this thread hilarious.
It’s just awful.
They are small and ugly yes but they are still living creatures at the end of the day and deserve to be treated with kindness.
The comparisons with nits are ridiculous, headlice are a health risk so obviously people will seek to kill them when discovered.
A creature that is killed because it actively causes harm is very different to actively going out and buying a creature/being gifted them then deciding that actually you don’t like it very much so killing it.
Yes it is true they are used as live fish food and it is true they are bottom of the food chain.
However.
I don’t imagine many people would find it acceptable to buy a box of fancy mice from the pet shop and feed them to the cat despite cats naturally eating mice.
Nor do I think most people would be comfortable giving dogs live rabbits yet left to their own devices a large proportion of dogs will chase and kill and eat rabbits.
The majority of snakes are fed dead rodents, not live.
Unlike some reptiles, the vast, vast majority of fish will happily eat flake/pellets/frozen live food so I don’t think it terribly ethical to feed them live brine shrimp, daphnia etc.
It seems to me that the fact they are small, incredibly ugly, dont require significant financial outlay, don’t really ‘bond’ with you or do anything interesting like say a cat or dog makes them worthless in the eyes of many people.
And I think that’s a really awful, cruel and callous attitude to have.