What age is ok to kill small animals?

[Barem]

Hi all,

I have a four year old son, and his father has taken him to his families cabin for the weekend.

They’ve taken some fishing nets as it’s close to the water, which I thought would be really sweet for my son to play with.

Yesterday his father told me that they’d caught a crab and he’d let my son kill it with a hammer to use as bait. I said I wasn’t too happy with this as I want him to enjoy learning about animals but not take enjoyment in killing them (at least this young).

Today he told me they’d caught a fish and killed it for the dogs to eat.

When I asked if they could catch it (it’s in a net not on a hook) and throw it back in he accused me of trying to ruin all their fun and put a downer on their day.

My son is meant to be back this morning but now father won’t tell me when he’s bringing him back.

What is everyone’s opinion on children killing animals yet? I’m a vegetarian so aware that I might be a bit more sensitive than others. But I’d have hoped that his father would at least consider/ respect my feelings on this?

Have you ever been to a slaughter house?

Well the knife to slaughter a lamb and the plastic to package it so you can buy it isn’t in nature either. What the fuck are you on about.

How would you suggest they kill the crab? You can split it with a cleaver and give it a good smack with a hammer or mallet.

You know anything about killing crabs? If you don’t like it that’s up to you. I don’t like crab meat so I’m not interested. But to suggest doing it and teaching his son means the father has no morals is utterly fucking ridiculous.

It’s actually mind boggling to me the lack of logic here. Matches don’t appear in nature either but I still teach my nearly 4 year old how to use them to light a campfire.

Mumsnet is always an eye-opener as to how some people live and how it informs their ridiculous thinking.

It’s never okay to kill anything ! X

“Just buy it from the shop like a normal person”

is the most hilarious insane example of total disconnection from reality I’ve read in a long while

I am yes.

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

It's never ok.

I fished from a young age for food, no crab bludgeoning though. Nothing wrong with humane despatching of fish, gutting and cooking. Same for other hunting as long as it’s for food

I don’t claim to be an expert in psychology but I think you are mixing up two very different things.

First, that one of the indicators of psychopathy in children is torturing animals. This is done generally alone or with peers. It’s a secret. The child derives pleasure from seeing an animal suffer.

Second is parent led learning on a fishing trip where a child is being guided, by a responsible adult, to learn how to extract crab meat, presumably from a leg of a crab, to use for fishing bait. The child isn’t bashing the hell out of a crab for enjoyment fhs! Fishing is a skill. There is satisfaction to be found in doing it responsibly and well. And hopefully enjoyment of a good meal. But not enjoyment of death per se.

The two scenarios are nowhere near comparable.

I'm veggie too and I would be so upset at my son being exposed to this cruelty.

If you are coparenting not much you can do, but you can get your son lots of books about treating animals with kindness like gentle hands for pets and animals are not for eating

Agree

I'm also vegan, and agree with your post. If people are going to eat animals, they need to be killed. I feel sorry for the poor crab, but it has probably had a better life than a farmed animal, especially an animal living and dying in a factory farm type situation.
But obviously my preference would be that no animals were killed at all for human food.

Dogs CAN be vegetarian, cats cannot. Whether they would choose to be does not come in to it and neither do your views on it

Hammering a crab to death is disgusting and absolutely wrong especially for a young child to do. Your ex should be ashamed of himself

You don't want him taking enjoyment in killing animals this young? He shouldn't be raised to take enjoyment out of killing animals full stop.

I'd be furious and educating my son on how cruel this was, particularly the crab. Horrendous.

It might interest folk to know that hitting an animal on the head is considered one of the most humane forms of killing them, aside from shooting them. Done properly both those methods give a quick painless death.

You have phrased this in a very interesting way. Every young child who has gone fishing and put a worm on a hook or had it done for them has technically killed a small animal. Whether they threw the fish back or ate it for dinner, which I personally consider more ethical than recreational fishing, a creature died and the child participated.

it’s not death that is problematic, it’s death without purpose.