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 😭

I wouldn’t like this but probably wouldn’t say anything because I fear confrontation.

I also don’t kill spiders, flies, wasps or bees, and I don’t think people should keep pet animals in cages. I don’t visit zoos either and I think Seaworld is appalling.

I didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed to have these views as a meat eater. I don’t fancy becoming vegan so I guess I’ll just have to start eating butterflies and spiders so that my philosophy makes sense to the vegan complainers.

David Attenborough isn't vegan..

Fuck him and his hypocritical animal conservation efforts. What a wanker

Mine used to bring in bugs and keep them as pets they always “escaped” once they had gone to bed. Died down when we got the cat, she is a lot more interesting to them than bugs. I agree YNBU, but unfortunately we can’t stop other parents from doing things we disagree with.

Absolutely!

Well said 👏🏻 and Chris Packham only became vegan six years ago. I guess fuck all his efforts prior to that.

Well @FanofLeaves perhaps this is where you recap on the lesson you ought to have paid more attention to; to keep your opinions to yourself.

you went on and on and on. 🙄

Sorry what lesson was that? I must have been off that day.

😂(in a totaly agreeing with you way!)

Gently catching observing afew hours maybe educational. Swinging round m and s and keeping for days- not ok!

I love the way this thread has gone, thanks I needed a bit of a laugh. I would have said something as well OP - I'm not even vegetarian either, just a compulsively interfering old hypocritical killjoy.

I agree with you. It’s a stupid mean thing to do. It’s cruel

YANBU. I haven’t seen butterfly nets but it sounds like the wings could get damaged being trapped in a net. 😔

To be fair being vegan isn't really enough to avoid hypocrisy. Anyone who eats non-organic food probably contributes to more insect deaths in every field than butterflies getting captured in M&S. That is a bigger driver of the 60% decline in insect populations in the last 20 years.

YANBU, OP. You don't have to be idealistically pure to comment that someone else is being selfish and inconsiderate. I wouldn't detain a butterfly longer than a few seconds to have a little look. Then watch a video about it on YouTube. I eat meat but it doesn't mean I go round joyfully stepping on snails or something.

Glad you spoke up. Why should one child’s enjoyment out rank the butterfly’s right to its freedom. It’s not raising a child to respect wildlife it’s raising an entitled child.

If there was someone being cruel to dog in M&S do you think people wouldn't say anything? I think most people would. You'd probably have to stop them physically attacking the owner.

Is putting a butterfly in a net and taking into M&S more or less cruel than tying up a dog to a post outside M&S? People have odd views on the different treatments of animals.

Yep, me too. I would have made a sharp exit from M & S.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

YANBU

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.