I was about 4-5 yrs old and my parents got a hamster for my brother and me. Being little kids we gave it the creative name of Mr. Hamster. The only actual memory I have of Mr. Hamster is when he stabbed me in the fucking back.

I picked him up one day and he ran up my shirt sleeve and bit me on the arm. I started to bleed and it scared me so I knocked him off of me and ran to my mom crying. In later years my then step-brother got a hamster. Guess what happened? Unprovoked, the fucker bit me and drew blood. I saw the evil in its soul that day. He bit all of us (brothers and parents) many times. We tried to be nice to him to show him that we mean no harm but it didnt matter. He would bite us just to be cruel. Many years later I went to a pet store and saw the hamsters there. I thought I would try my luck again. I spent some time trying to be nice to the hamsters and gently pet them. They bit me. From my experience, all they do is bite and be useless. Avoid hamsters. They are evil. Good riddance Mr. Hamster

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That does sound like evil rodents.

I'm currently at war with the groundhogs again. They're super cute and super destructive. They like to dig under foundations, especially my outbuildings. I got five last year; two, so far, this year.

I live trap them so that I can let any bycatch coons or possums go free. Unfortunately, I have to dispatch the groundhogs. (legally you are required to dispatch and not relocate as they carry rabies and are overpopulated due to lack of predators.)

[–] tungsten5@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This reminds me of the time my father wanted to rid the neighborhood of stray cats as he read up on how they can be destructive to the local environment. As a direct result of this, I killed my neighbors cat after shooting it a few times in the head (I didn’t know it was my neighbors cat). My father told me to do it. I was about 17 at the time.

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Cats are absolute hell on wildlife, especially ground nesting birds, and should be removed from outdoors. That being said, that's completely fucked up that it was put on you by your father. It also sounds like you had to use a pellet/bb gun, the wrong tool. Also sounds like you might not have had much experience killing animals, completely understandable, cute housecats is a terrible place to start with that and is fucked up. He shouldn't have done that to you.

I had a similar experience when I was 15 and working my first job, on a farm. Had to shoot a puppy. Guess my boss thought it would make me tough or something. I managed not to throw up or cry.

My son is 15, I would never put something like that on him. He's killed rats with rat shot. He's watched me clean fish and squirrels. I'm hoping to have chickens next spring. My wife and I have talked about it, I'm going to teach him how to kill and clean a chicken.

Killing always makes me a little sad, as it should. I don't even kill spiders unless it's a black widow or a brown recluse and it's inside a house or shed. I take the ethics of it very seriously.

However, I think that if you're going to eat meat, you should have to kill and butcher at least once. We'd have a lot more vegans and more respect for life.

[–] tungsten5@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I’ve killed animals prior to that event, but it was for hunting (but yeah Im no expert at all, I mostly shot small game and once hogs but I still wasn’t too sure of what I was doing). This cat was trapped in a cage and not happy about it. I can’t remember if it was a pellet gun or actual firearm but it was a .22 (my father used both .22 pellet guns and firearms when on his property). Either way he told me to just take it out back and shoot it through the cage. I tried to line up the barrel right to the back of its head with the intent of one shot and hes dead. But right as I pulled the trigger the cat moved and I just shot it in the face. It was really hard to shoot it anywhere meaningful while it was jumping around and screaming in there. Hence 4 more shots of my desperately trying to end its suffering. I really like cats so I didnt want it to suffer so much. I wanted it to be fast and painless. But this was the start of my fathers ‘swimming school’ as he called. When he came to the back yard to find me he saw the mess I made and his solution was to tie a rope to the cage and toss it into the river running through our backyard. He hold the rope as to not lose the cage. After some time the cat drowned and my dad left the body in the river. As he caught more cats he just stuck with his ‘swimming school’. It wasn’t until after the first cat died that we found out it was the neighbors cat. He would let his cat out at night. My father told me to not saying anything to the neighbor so I didn’t.

I would like to learn to butcher and clean, it seems like a useful skill but not one that is in my family so I never learned. Your take on it seems sensible, I like it. Much better than drowning cats

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Jesus fuck. I wasn't there, but your father abused you, displayed laziness, cowardice, and tortured animals. I find the cowardice of having you do it and then drowning particularly disgusting. Fucking yeller coward. I'm sorry you went through that.

I dispatch groundhogs in the trap with a . 22 revolver to the head using high velocity hollow points. I also know what the fuck I'm doing. They don't feel it. I've put down cats before, but I use buckshot to make sure, they move fast and fucking up with a pet is unacceptable.

My son could, and would, put down pets if I told him to or I wasn't able. It would fuck him up and it would have to be dire circumstances for it to ever happen. I'd have to be in the hospital or something and my wife would do it before he had to. That shit ain't right.

Start with fishing, easy to learn to clean from youtube and the emotional impact is a lot less.