Is it cruel to throw sea monkeys away?

[Nahnottoday]

MIL got the the kids sea monkeys for Xmas I've only been the one bothered about them. They freak me out more than anything and can't bare the thought of bringing them to the new house.

Are these the type of pets you give away? Are they pets I don't know 🤣

I'm not being obtuse! A pp said that you shouldn't kill the SM because they were bought as pets. So by that logic they only get to live because they were bought for a particular purpose, not because of the intrinsic value of SM lives.

I'm just pointing out that's bollocks.

I get that Sea Monkeys are probably no more sentient than headlice and bugs in your carpet and ants and mosquitos etc. etc. but I do agree there's something a bit iffy about killing something that you brought into your own home out of choice and for your own enjoyment.

I'm always teaching my kids to be kind to living things and that we only kill them if they can potentially do us harm, so I guess I'd dispose of them in a pond or something, for the kids' benefit more than anything else.

@JRUIN

Exactly CandidaAlbicans2. I find the mindset Of OP and some others on this thread really quite disturbing, and am fearful of how their kids will turn out with them as their role models.

I think this may be the single most melodramatic comment I've ever read on MN. Impressive, given all the competition.

killing something that you brought into your own home out of choice and for your own enjoyment.

But OP didn't buy them, she just got lumbered with them by her MIL giving them to the kids.

I just don’t understand the rationale of eating meat and allowing your kids to do so then getting sentimental over something that doesn’t have a central nervous system and can survive in suspended animation, just seems so hypocritical.

I had SM when I was about 13 (can you tell i was super cool) I cant remember what happened to them, but the water went down the kitchen sink and it stank 🤢

OP if I was you, I would buy another tank and individually sex each SM as you don't want them to breed. 🤣

@SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito

Well you're veering into the field of Quantum Ethics there. Do you know how many cats Schrodinger had to kill/not kill in the course of his research?

And here I was, thinking theoretical physics had the lowest death count of the sciences...

Common misconception. Physicists are actually a bloodthirsty lot. They just call them "Thought" experiments to keep PETA off their backs.

Speaking of which the OP should be careful. She could end up with them protesting on her doorstep naked except for brine shrimp themed body paint.

Haha this thread is killing me! It reminds me of that Flash advert where the Buddhist monk was pottering round his temple putting spiders outside, etc. then wiped his sides down and was horrified when he saw that Flash kills 99.9% of bacteria

SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito it's only bollocks if you think it's not important to teach your children to respect their pets. I happen to think it's very important, therefore I would never throw away a living creature, that was bought for them, because I was too lazy to take care of it anymore.

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.

Mice can be fancy?

They have tiny top hats and monocles

@JRUIN Thank you. You get my first ever

But would you chuck it down your gullet!

@JRUIN please tell me you are vegan 😊

If you get hungry you can mix them with mayo and have a sandwich 👨‍🍳

I'm the biggest animal love ever but this has really tickled me.

I buy these to feed my betta fish (he's called Maki) :-/

@MellowBird85

Haha this thread is killing me! It reminds me of that Flash advert where the Buddhist monk was pottering round his temple putting spiders outside, etc. then wiped his sides down and was horrified when he saw that Flash kills 99.9% of bacteria

I was just thinking that! I remembered it as a Kleenex ad

Where is the OP? I hope she's silently creasing up in the corner for inadvertently creating chaos on MN between shrimp pro life and shrimp eaters.

I have no opinion about what you should do with the Sea Monkeys. I'm just remembering how disappointed I was when I FINALLY got some as a kid and they looked nothing like the undersea Kings and Queens in the ad, with their little crowns and scepters and smiling faces. I can't remember what even happened to them, I was that underwhelmed.

I think that some people DO feed their snakes live mice. I also had pet rats as a child and my brother took a few dozen to his friend who had a boa constrictor. I was very upset. I guess my mother hadn't realized how many babies they would have when she got them for me. She got sick of them and put poison in their cages! Yes, it was a different time (1975).

She lit the blue touch paper and retired

@JRUIN please tell me you are vegan

Nope. I do not eat our pets though........at least not in front of the children.

@frostedviolets

God what an awful thread this is.

Take out ‘sea monkey’ and replace with ‘puppy’ or ‘kitten’ or ‘bunny’ and the tone would be very different.

They are living, breathing creatures...
Of course you don’t ‘throw them away’, how fucking vile.
You bought them, you look after them or you sell/give them away to someone who will

Oh oh oh! I can use this in the “most over the top response ever” thread!

Bloody hell they are brine shrimp! This thread is hilarious!

Mice can be fancy?
It’s the term used to differentiate ‘pet’ mice from wild.
Pet mice are ‘fancy mice’

That was the best 15 minutes read of my life.

Fucking totes mental

I grow them and feed them to my fish. They are literally food 😂 Same as the quails that we raise and feed to the dogs.

Isnt it normal for kids to learn about the food chain?!