Comment by BugsJustFindMe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BugsJustFindMe | Hacker News Reader

At first I read "A mutilated garter snake, a sliced frog and countless slashed grasshoppers. That was the scene of carnage" and laughed. "Carnage indeed. Grow up," I said out loud. If people wanted to live in the middle of a bunch of bats and snakes and shit, they'd go live in the middle of nowhere instead of next to other people.

But then I looked up Alexandria, Ohio.

"Alexandria is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 517 at the 2010 census"

517! Wow! And they don't even live _in_ Alexandria. They live outside it!

So these people did go live in the middle of nowhere, and whatever counts out there as the agency of local dominion has decided that plots of land in the middle of nowhere need to be free of animals. Wooo boy.

I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. I'm used to dealing with large animals killed by coyotes, old age, and butchering.

But I don't like your attitude towards death. You might not care about snakes and frogs and such. That's fine. But they're neat animals, and it's not childish at all to not want to harm them.

It's about having a good reason. Coyotes gotta eat, nothing lives forever, and a slaughter is a harvest. But killing a snake so you can have a trimmed lawn you don't even want, well yeah, no wonder.

It's also worth noting the value snakes and frogs provide in the population control of other less desireable rodents and insects.

I don't know what you're responding to in the original comment. S/he appears to agree with the article generally.

Oh, I agree on the whole. Just the first line of their comment rubbed me the wrong way.

I somewhat get that, but in this case i think it's in the context of the "natural world". We all know it's not just lollipops and cupcakes out there.

It's actually the definition of childish disregard and lack of empathy to be amused by, or indifferent to the suffering of animals. It's not uncommon, but it's the sign of a basic failing of character and cognition.

I had to force myself to continue reading after the first line, it soiled the rest of the article for me.

Care to explain why?

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