The Practice

[Guest guest]

Sharon

You aren't alone out here! It is disgusting that people find it necessary to

react that way to any living creature as if they have the right to determine

whether something is worthy of it's life or not or if it should be killed. I

think it's some very deep seated need to defy a God they think they know!

Whatever the case I have been there and I know it's terribly unpleasant!

Good idea to write the network! I guess it's trendy to kill rats on TV these

days! Pretty barbaric behavior in my book!

C

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

The Practice is on ABC right now and I was half watching it and half

being on the internet.

 

I caught part of a scene where a few people are in an office and one of

them said something like " I'm an animal rights activist too, but ther is

a waiver on rats. " Apparently there was a rat in the room and they were

afraid of him or her.

 

Someone found the rat and stomped on it repeatedly. Then another

character said, " That's one dead rat. "

 

I found the whole episode very upsetting and revolting and violent. I

liked that they mentioned animal rights, but killing the rat that way

was really sick. I feel that they were giving a message that it's ok

to kill rats.

 

I thought that some people who watched this might feel sympathetic

towards rats after watching this, but I feel this was more giving the

message that it's acceptable to kill rats in this violent way rather

than drawing sympathy towards rats.

 

For anyone interested in contacting ABC about this, they take comments

at the following email address.

 

netaudr

 

 

I think this especially struck me because of an incident that happened

to me on Wednesday. I was at a 12 step meeting and afterwards was

talking to someone. She pointed out a bug on the floor next to my foot.

It was a centipede. I am normally afraid of them, but felt no fear at

all and crouched down and almost touched the centipede to get her to

move so no one would kill her. She did. She didn't move to a safe

place though, so I did the same thing agai and she went towards the

wall.

 

Suddenly someone I know came a long and went something like, " Ewww, kill

that thing... ew, ew.. " and very violently stepped on the centipede and

killed her.

 

I was very, very upset about this. I felt like it was such a violent

thing and felt really upset because I wasn't able to save the centipede.

 

Sharon

[Guest guest]

I hear you Sharon!

 

I used to feel a similar degree of irrational fear/hatred about

spiders. It brought me up against my feelings BIG time when my

husband and I moved out here to the west coast, which is SPIDER

country! We make everything BIG here... :-)

 

I didn't make any progress with my phobia until my daughter was

about 5 or 6, and she suddenly developed the same phobia. When

she was trembling with anxiety, staring at the poor terrified,

cornered spider, I suddenly had an awakening. I suddenly

realized that the spider was just as scared of us as we were of

it. I developed a system of trapping them in an empty toilet

paper carboard roll, pinching the one end shut and encouraging it

to crawl in the open end, then using that as a capsule to escort

it outside in. Over the years that I have been doing this, I have

gotten to know the personalities of the spiders typical of the

various species. It is cool how different the " vibes " are from

the various types. Some seem to understand that I mean them no

harm and enter the escort vehicle calmly. Others frantically

race away, only willing to enter after they have proved to

themselves that there is no other way out. I feel badly for

them, but I really do feel that outside is a better place for

them. There is way more for them to eat and drink.

 

We have had mice in our house a few times. I feel the same about

them, I would prefer they stay outside because they often damage

wiring and stuff if they are allowed to stay inside. I devised

an effective live trap for them with an old rodent cage. I bait

a cracker with some peanut butter, and attach a light thread to

the door so that when they nibble the peanut butter, the thread

is pulled off the door post, so that the door swings shut. It's

very simple, no springs or anything that might cause injury if

they got caught under the door. I have caught everyone that we

wanted to exit in that way. They get dinner, a safe place to

spend the rest of the night, and then in the morning, I take them

out to what I call Mouse Central. It's a bail of hay in an old

play house. I notice there has been some nesting activity there.

There are a couple of little piles of my dogs downy under fur

that I had put into the compost bucket to dispose of it, imported

into Mouse Central by a little being! :-)

 

Deborah

 

Suddenly someone I know came a long and went something like,

" Ewww, kill

that thing... ew, ew.. " and very violently stepped on the

centipede and

killed her.

 

I was very, very upset about this. I felt like it was such a

violent

thing and felt really upset because I wasn't able to save the

centipede.

 

Sharon

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Hi Deborah,

 

I didn't realize that spiders have personalities. That's really cool.

 

I have come to actually like spiders since last summer. I was seeing

someone who was also an animal lover and almost-vegan and we used to see

spiders and take notice of them and really enjoy watching them.

 

Sometimes I've driven home from somewhere with a spider on the outside

of my car and I always try to help them make it with me safely, by going

slow, etc.

 

Sharon