To be offended by children throwing things at a dead animal on the side of the road?

[blackkitty1234]

Walking my dog and the kids are coming out of the local high school in their droves. Sadly there is a dead badger that’s been hit and placed on the grass verge. In come a group of boys who start throwing stuff at it. I told them to stop and they tell me ‘it’s a fucking animal’. AIBU to find this behaviour disgusting and pull them up on it? I wish parents would raise their children to have a deeper respect and compassion for non human life 😕

They were playing an unpleasant game with a carcass. You can’t necessarily extrapolate cruelty to live animals from kids throwing stones at a dead animal.

I don't know anyone that would play an 'unpleasant game with a carcass' that's such a bizarre and unpleasant thing to do. You might not extrapolate cruelty but I'd be very unnerved by children who were comfortable playing with the bodies of dead animals.

Oh come on. We all know exactly the type of kids that would do this. Let’s not pretend they’re the nice children. They’re the antisocial little shits that cause problems at school and in the local area

I know nothing whatsoever about the children in question, so I’m in no position to confidently assert anything about them beyond the fact that someone on the internet allegedly saw them throw stones at an animal carcass.

But perhaps the very point of this thread was to get a MN froth going about ‘naice children’ vs ‘antisocial little shits who ruin the community’.

@BadTattoosAndSmellLikeBooze

Posted too soon. They are the kids most likely to be cruel to animals and vulnerable people....and anyone really that they fancy bullying. But keep pretending if it makes you feel better. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m not ‘pretending’ to know anything about them whatsoever. And I haven’t constructed a lurid backstory for them, or concocted projections of their potential future behaviour, on the basis of one reported incident on an anonymous Internet forum.

They might not even exist 🤷‍♀️

@Kerberos

Honestly I think you are over thinking this. It's just a dead badger. You lost your moral high ground when you swore back at them and it was none of your business in the first place.

Yes kids can make poor choices, they're vile at times and the story above about year 7 and a rat with sticks definitely rings true with my feral teenagers. But you are responsible for the choices you make and when you interfered, then swore back at them, in my opinion, is when you crossed a line.

‘It’s just a dead badger’.... ‘it’s a fucking animal’ Not your kids by any chance?

Your words are mind boggling. What line did I cross? How is it none of my business? Why wouldn’t I interfere? I had every right to let them know in no uncertain terms what vile little shits they were being. I tried to do it nicely.. didn’t work.. so needed to use harder language. Crazy.

Can’t believe people think that calling teenage children fucking jerks when they are being little shits is worse than disrespecting dead animals.

@BigBadVoodooHat
They exist, wish they didn’t though.

@Growapair

It’s a dead badger. I don’t think it’s ‘disrespectful‘ or ‘offensive’ kids poking at a dead animal carcass. It’s a bit gross but kids are curious. You on the other hand swearing and name calling at a group of children...

Hear hear

Once when my DS was at junior school he was taken to a local country show. It was an educational day. I got a phone call from one of the teachers asking if there was anything going on at home because my son was tearful and not engaging. Long story short, when my son got home he explained that there was a table of dead animals and the other kids were making jokes about them and laughing. It spoilt his day. Next day I spoke to the teacher and explained and she seemed surprised! What world do we live in that a child showing empathy for dead creatures is something to cause suspicion? OK, he was too young to express to the teacher how he felt but how on earth could they have missed it. Wish I was there as I'd have taught them a lesson myself.

You didn't 'need to use harder language' to get your point across. If that's how it works then wouldn't teachers and everyone be calling everyone fucking jerks?
If you know anything about teenagers then you'd know that your disproportionate reaction would be like a red rag to a bull and likely push them into more inappropriate action.

@BigBadVoodooHat

Oh come on. We all know exactly the type of kids that would do this. Let’s not pretend they’re the nice children. They’re the antisocial little shits that cause problems at school and in the local area

I know nothing whatsoever about the children in question, so I’m in no position to confidently assert anything about them beyond the fact that someone on the internet allegedly saw them throw stones at an animal carcass.

But perhaps the very point of this thread was to get a MN froth going about ‘naice children’ vs ‘antisocial little shits who ruin the community’.

Agreed. Have seen two of these bizarre telltale 'painting op as a hero' posts tonight. They are horrible

@famousforwrongreason

You didn't 'need to use harder language' to get your point across. If that's how it works then wouldn't teachers and everyone be calling everyone fucking jerks? If you know anything about teenagers then you'd know that your disproportionate reaction would be like a red rag to a bull and likely push them into more inappropriate action.

I’d love to know what you would have said to them following the laughing, swearing and scoffing....

But I am guessing you wouldn’t have said anything. At least I’ve got the guts to tell them what they’re doing is wrong.

I'd have sworn at them OP. It's not like it's any worse than language than they're using among themselves.

DS nearly got into a fight the other day when some kids at school were tormenting an injured bird. (As it was, common sense intervened and he told a teacher who actually did something about it.) But he was really sad and angry thinking about how little empathy there was from kids he's at school with.

@Chaotica

I'd have sworn at them OP. It's not like it's any worse than language than they're using among themselves.

DS nearly got into a fight the other day when some kids at school were tormenting an injured bird. (As it was, common sense intervened and he told a teacher who actually did something about it.) But he was really sad and angry thinking about how little empathy there was from kids he's at school with.

Bloody Hell... that’s horrible. Your poor DS.

Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with swearing at them if they are being little shits. Not like I didn’t try and do it the nice way at first. That’s the problem with kids today, adults pussy foot around them like they are precious snowflakes.

And you’re right, my language was mild in comparison to the language they were using amounts themselves 😒

Op
I think you were right , people /children should have respect for living/and dead creatures too

Well done for telling them straight, quite brave of you these days with feral obnoxious kids running amok.

I say obnoxious, as I had the experience of going to a local convince shop, and having a few kids throw stones at me..
And my ex partner father of my children who is going blind, had stones thrown at him too,coming home from town centre..

Also one of classic signs of a disturbed individual of psychopaths, is animal cruelty in childhood, be very wary of anybody who gets kick out of inflicting cruelty on animals.

@Nikhedonia

They were playing an unpleasant game with a carcass. You can’t necessarily extrapolate cruelty to live animals from kids throwing stones at a dead animal.

I don't know anyone that would play an 'unpleasant game with a carcass' that's such a bizarre and unpleasant thing to do. You might not extrapolate cruelty but I'd be very unnerved by children who were comfortable playing with the bodies of dead animals.

Yup You are not being unreasonable

Wellybookswhere youfrom

Yes its defaintely possible to be offended by an animal that once living being dead and having kids throwing things at a dead badger.

Just like I would be offended if I saw someone descreting a grave, even if was not my family member grave stone..

Animals have feelings like us,they breed and do bodily functions like in same way as us humans do,

Op
Especially being vegan.

I found it really refreshing Alternative, your point of view you can be still compassionate, even if someone is not vegan too..

Obviously you are vegan Op

I would not be "offended" by children poking at roadkill.
It's dead. They are being gross, anti hygienic, dumb, etc, but they are not torturing it. That is a behavior that they will very likely to grow out of.

I also think that is is fine for you to bite back if they swore at you. They are high schoolers (at least that's what I understood), so not precious babies anymore. They say to each other worse things every day.

So all in all, they are not budding Hannibal Lecter, not feral monsters, not This-sort-of-people (part of the thread reads very very snobby btw). They are just dumb teens doing gross things.
You said your piece to them, that's fair. But this is a bit of a storm in a teacup.

Kids like that are dragged up by feral parents. Not shown respect. Leave the poor animal alone for fuck sakes.

It's dead. They are being gross, anti hygienic, dumb, etc, but they are not torturing it. That is a behavior that they will very likely to grow out of

Awfully confident of something you cannot be sure of. I mean people do frow up to be cruel to animals, we have cat prisoners, dog theives, animals shot with bb guns, hit and runs with dogs, dog fighting etc loads if things it could escalate too, I'd not wanna take the chance of doing bugger all about it, or shrug my shoulders with a half hearted " they will grow out of it".

The idea someones a middle class snob because they don't think its normal to play with dead animals...I've heard it all now...

Humans are horrible. So so many "sports" centred around the joy of using, abusing, hurting and killing animals.
Their parent probably taught them to. Same as the parents that let their kids chase birds or sit on their dogs back.