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

[FanofLeaves]

Was just picking up a few bits in M&S and there was a girl about 8 years old or so swinging one of those butterfly net thingies off her arm. On closer inspection I saw she had one in there (not the ones you send away for, although that would be bad enough, one that had obviously been procured organically)

Her mum was busy looking at something so I said to the girl ‘oh! What a pretty butterfly. That’s a large white. I except you’re going to let it go after you’ve finished your shopping, aren’t you?’

The mum came over beaming presumably ready to hear a comment about what a fun summer holiday activity this all is, and said ‘no, we’ll take it home, keep it for a few days and observe it. It flew straight into the net so we had this ready to pop it straight into!’

‘I said ‘well I’m sure it would have been preferred to be observed in nature, where it was, not caught in a net and taken round the shops. Don’t you think it’s a bit cruel?’

Anyway she was visibly annoyed, and said ‘it’s fine. My children are learning about nature! We know what it eats!’

Anyway she steered her child away from me and said some people are just very joyless and bitter.

Yeah I know I probably sound like a busy body but I can’t bear it when parents tell their kids it’s ok to just take stuff out of nature for their own amusement. Why is it ok to do this? It’s so Victorian, to capture a creature to just look at it, no thought for the poor thing at all. Don’t get me started on why they still sell butterfly nets 😭

@HaveCreditWillShop

how did Op insult the child?? She didn’t call her any names. She rightly spoke up for the butterfly and wildlife in general (things you clearly aren’t bothered about it would seem)

I’m talking about YOU! Saying my children ‘will crumble’! Not very nice is it. How about I say a few things about your kids and their future on the checkouts at Aldi?

@HaveCreditWillShop

erm where did I say I would tell your kids in a supermarket they would crumble if someone disagreed with them?? You’ve invented a whole different scenario! We’re talking about OP here and she didn’t say a thing wrong to the child. At all.

I’m sorry to say….and I’m not saying this to be awkward or whatever some may deem it BUT this is exactly where we have gone wrong in society today. I blame the internet for people over expressing their views unnecessarily on one another in real life because it seems they can’t differentiate between the two. Yes people can comment non stop online, two’ing and fro’ing making comments and waste their own time to their hearts content. Sure do whatever makes you happy. BUT out in public stop and think, don’t say it, you’re not online now. People don’t want or need to hear you “2 pennies worth” and it’s also exceptionally RUDE! Keep your thoughts to yourself. I don’t agree with some kid waving a butterfly round in a net and taking it home. But sadly her parent is yet another one of these entitled people that then made snotty comments in return. Can you see you both achieved nothing but irritating one another. You don’t need to approach people you don’t know and make digs/comments about what they do or don’t do. Please remember to mind your own business.

I'm glad you said something. We can observe and learn about animals in their natural environment whilst also teaching children about humanity.

So to make your feta cheese lambs will be slaughtered. As with dairy milk, females will only lactate if they have given birth. The lambs/kids/calves are by-products of this process. Feta cheese also contains rennet, an enzyme used to trigger coagulation in cheese production. Rennet is harvested from the calves killed as part of the dairy industry.

The only reason you don't associate the cruelty associated with meat/dairy industry production with the cruelty of keeping a butterfly in a net is because you don't see it. You merely see a clean product in a supermarket aisle. A lot of spilt blood and violence is an integral part of the process that led to the neat containers of Feta in the supermarket. Why you blithely put the product of this suffering into your stomach whilst being outraged by an 8 year old girl hurting a butterfly is a prime example of cognitive dissonance.

That's really cruel 😢 We've hatched ours and set them free asap, because they don't live for very long.

Only female chickens are suitable for almost egg laying uses of chickens, from much loved pets to factory farms. This means that almost all male chickens are killed at one day old or soon after. Mostly this is done by live shredding. They have mincing machines that the live day old chicks are simply thrown into by the bucket. Some breeders use carbon dioxide or argon to kill them. For all the chickens used by Big Dairy egg industries, the day old male chicks are the lucky ones. But your pampered birds will still have been part of this process. Male chicks grow into cockerels and are difficult to control, so even pet chicken breeders will kill surplus male chicks.

I told a kid off for throwing stones at a seagull the other day, parent did not look best pleased but i would do it again

To be honest all a lot of vegans do is put people off become vegans, which I’m sure isn’t the intention. I have no desire to make the leap from vegetarianism to veganism in the slightest. Your ‘cheese’ tastes like absolute garbage for one thing, and I can’t live like that.

It was a butterfly. There in the supermarket, in front of me, and I reacted. I do not need a lecture on the slaughter practises of animals that are entirely unrelated to both the topic and the creature in question. Still standing firm on the fact that it doesn’t outright make me a hypocrite, but frankly even if it does show me a human who isn’t hypocritical in some way.

Also, M&S Greek feta is VEGETARIAN and contains NO RENNET. just FYI. Check it out if you don’t believe me. Still probably no good on the sheep, but fuck all to do with cattle by-products.

@Chompingatthebeat

how dare you, that poor child! So out of order, they’re gonna be scarred for life!

Good 👏🏻 I’d be so embarrassed to have to be told off for letting my child be a menace.

Some people are so ignorant. I sometimes think we have stopped evolving 😡.

Saying everyone is a hypocrite in some way is just an excuse isn't it? You could say that about any behaviour.

As I have already posted, even if, as you say, M&S feta uses microbial rennet, lambs will have been slaughtered to enable milk produced by the resulting lactation to have been harvested.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if you said 'I fucking hate lambs, bleating bastards that shit everwhere. I am happy to eat the little fuckers. But I like butterflies, pretty little fluttery things that warm my heart (even though millions of them are poisoned by the agricultural industry which produces your veggie spring rolls).

But to say there is a difference imho, is merely because there was a butterfly in front of you. The similar cruelty meted out to farm animals for your pleasure is not in front of you so you can forget about it. You were no better than the 8 year old girl and her mother. Your cruelty just took place away from the public view.

I have no interest what you think about vegans, but at least spend a little time trying to understand what industrial meat etc production means in practice. Just because you didn't see the violence and cruelty necessary to produce your feta doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Is it true all vegetarians go vegan after watching 5 minute video on the dairy industry?

No

Are you vegetarian and have watched it? Not saying you should, I’m just curious.

I wonder if an insight from Montessori might be of use. To you she was a nasty brat torturing a butterfly. But to her, and her mum maybe, she was an animal behaviourist, deeply engaged in her science and developing her latest hypothesis. You, the animal rights activist/idealist, disrupted her work for a moment but maybe one day you will be grateful that she persevered in her work to discover the lifestyle change that goes on to vastly improve your quality or quantity of life. Or that her dedicated observation of this butterfly ultimately led to the establishment of vast butterfly reserves.

To you it was mindless, pointless ‘play’. To her, it was serious work. Sometimes it can help us in our interactions with children (and other creatures for that matter) if we consider this.

@cherrytree86 FYI, just cos I'm not particularly fond of feminists does not make me a misogynist.

I mean who likes a sexist?! And feminists are by definition sexist, therefore I don't like feminists. Simples.

It's like saying not being fond of misogynists means you are a misandrist?

So are you a misandrist?

And/or do you like sexists!?

( Or do you know what those terms actually mean?! Doubtful me thinks from your ignorant post...)

@ThatDaringEagle

feminism and sexism are not the same.

do you think women shouldn’t have equal rights as men ?

are you a man?

Just cos I believe in equal rights & opportunity does not make me a feminist. In fact it's contrary to this stereotype.

To be solely ( or mainly) interested in 'women’s rights' ( i.e a feminist) is by definition, sexist. Therefore feminists are by default prototypical sexists, sadly.

If only people would identify themselves with a label that showed they are mostly interested in equal rights & equality of opportunity for both sexes, that would be good imho, but sadly they don't, people often label themselves feminist, which is by definition a sexist.

I'm not a fan of sexists , are you!?

I'm with you OP.

Yes I was and tbh it's awful but I already knew how awful dairy was.

Who breeds, electrocutes and eats butterflies???