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 😭

Enslaved dogs? Do you mean 'dogs'?

Does that mean the defective feline currently debating whether to sleep on

His bed
The sofa
The coffee table
His Amazon box that brought his very expensive food
Halfway up the stairs
The top of the stairs
The corner of the landing where the hot water pipe runs directly underneath on its way to the bathroom
My bed
The spare bed where DP has left his favourite jacket because the cat likes sleeping on it
The office chair in the spare room
The cushion that fell off the sofa five days ago that he commandeered as his latest favourite sleeping spot

or to ask me for another treat because, as a defective animal rescued after being born to a pregnant stray with cat flu, his hunting, killing and standing up without falling over skills aren't exactly up to muster

or to continue is his dilly daydream of getting the big old whitetailed bumble bee that's currently having a productive time in the buddleia outside the window to do something interesting like bring 40 or so of her sisters out to watch

is also a slave? Rather than a very happy, safe and loved member of the family?

Fuck me, if I'd known I wasn't allowed to take pity on creatures on the basis of being given Cow & Gate as a baby, I could have saved myself thousands over the years. And my garden would have been a lot tidier with all the glyphosphates and systemic insecticides to deal with the insects instead of the fully organic environment they have out there, along with being able to use peat and fertilisers to grow huge double flowered, sterile, non nectar producing/accessible to bumbles either with the correct tongue length or the ability to vibrate at middle A in order to extract pollen for protein and nest building flowers that are totally inhospitable and often toxic to mammals plants.

I was in a school recently where they had cocoons hatching in a net. One hatched but they said they don't let them go until all of them have hatched, which was more than two days (I was only there two days so not sure how long it took).
I don't like to see things that aren't free but I don't think I would have said anything, and at least it will be free in a couple of days. Better than the ones in my garden that keep getting eaten by my cat, which makes me sad.

Full disclosure, I do sometimes have a lapse of my vegetarianism. It is a work in progress. I don’t eat fish, at all, because I think we are fishing the oceans to fuck. But very occasionally I do slip up like all humans but I do try to make sure that when it happens it’s as organic/free range/grass fed/not sourced from abroad as I can possibly make it. And I still don’t think that makes me a hypocrite that doesn’t have any right to comment on the poor treatment of any creature. Surely veganism has its own unethical issues too.

I also ask parents not to let their kids chase pigeons, sue me. And yeah I was very proud of my little boy the other day when he told one of his friends to be careful because he was about to step on a snail. Children need to be taught to respect nature, or what’s the bloody point.

Do pigeons have any other purpose?

I wouldn't let my children do this.

I would however also take a very dim view of strangers foisting their opinions on my kids. If you have an issue, talk to the adult in the situation.

Than…. Being pigeons?

Though, i get where you are coming from especially as butterflies are fastly becoming endangered, I think it was confrontational and therefore inappropriate saying that to an 'about 8yr old child'. That's something to be said to her adult only.

For that, YABU.

Yeah, we really should be encouraging our kids to look after/respect mini beasts.
Spiders and jenny longlegs are my exceptions though, I'm afraid they are kindly evicted from my eyeline.
Think spiders are awesome wee creatures but 😱.
X

I do hope that those who are despairing at the thought of a butterfly in a net would be prepared to approach and challenge the owner of every dog they see on a lead about the cruelty of their actions.

Would you like to be chased by a strange creature many times larger than you?

Some species do hibernate over winter. My family used to live in a rather cold 16th century converted village pub. Butterfly’s used to hibernate in our house. I never disturbed them. It was glorious when spring came and they all awoke. I felt blessed to witness a miracle of nature in my own home. We released them all into the wild to take their chances and fulfil their biological destiny. Precious memory.

It's just training for them. They'll appreciate the fitness when someone's cat chases then with more evil intent then the kids. If the pigeons didn't enjoy it they wouldn't hang round the parks.

I love this ♥️

This! You have to be particularly cowardly to address your concerns to a small child rather than their adult parent in such a manner.

Have you seen how brutal pigeons can be? Also, they have wings so can sod off on the grass trying to steal my crumbs whilst I’m enjoying my sandwich - get back in the trees where you belong!

I wouldn't have liked to see it sounds like she was being a bit rough with it swinging it about and butterflys are very delicate. I have no problem someone capturing ant popping it into a mesh tent to have a quick look, see the species/if its a boy or girl and write it down before releasing it but to take it out it's habitat for days and not treat it with respect isn't right. Well done you for saying something

Because if you aren't a vegan you might as well kick puppies to death and set fire to kittens most weekends for fun according to some people on here.

Now that's just being ridiculous of course we use one of those humane bolt guns - the puppies barely know what is happening.

You'll have killed all manner of flying insects on your drive to m&s in the first place (have a look at your number plate if you don't believe me!) You can't get emotional every time an insect gets injured/killed/eaten/captured - it's madness.

Butterfly population decline is due to loss of habitat, and overuse of chemical pesticides, not due to a kid catching one butterfly in a net.

I don’t drive actually, (I know that’s another Mumsnet no no) I walked into town. Sometimes I bike or get the bus. Or the tram, but they’re re-doing the track at my local stop.

’one kid’ - not always though is it. It’s like those people that just pick ‘a few’ wild flowers, well, if we all did it, there wouldn’t be any left. (No I’m not talking about bloody dandelions)

I eat mine when they are still alive
It pisses me right off, I do a LOT for both wildlife and pet rescues and can guarantee that I give more of my time to help animals than most Vegans but because I think almond milk is awful and sometimes have a bacon sarnie I might as well not bother.

Let's face it the best way for a species not to be endangered is to be tasty.

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

What does it eat? Percy Pigs?

When we were kids we used to catch butterflies and keep them in a jam jar, put some leaves in there for them and keep them as "pets". We also used to go fishing with nets and catch "tiddlers".

Back then there used to be a lot more butterflies than there are now.

That's another thing we used to do go and pick bluebells, I think it's illegal to pick wild flowers now isn't it?