Animal Care: Should you Feed Live or Frozen?

Live feeding is animal cruelty. Let me repeat that, Live feeding is animal cruelty, no matter how you dress it up, and practically even when it is necessary for a picky eater. So when is it most justified?

Cruelty:

1. deliberate infliction of pain or suffering

2. the quality or characteristic of being cruel

3. a cruel action

“Why are you always so negative?” Many variations of this question are asked to me by the few people who know me. I guess one of the answers to that question is that people don’t think and use simple logic to reach conclusions that can easily prevent suffering, with the topic of live feeding being one of them. I wish to inform people; but excuse me if the tone of this article is a little ‘scathing’. People annoy me when they complain that zoo tigers are not given live prey and the excuses that they delude themselves into believing are upsetting. What leads people to defend obvious acts of animal cruelty, even that of which should be considered animal 'snuff' clips that commonly haunt on youtube?

There appears to be three types of opinions regarding this subject; people who genuinely care and think they are doing what’s best for the captive animal, people who justify their actions because it ‘occurs in nature’, and people who are, to be quite blunt, depraved individuals who have ‘anti-social disorder’ qualities yet have enough restraint to conform to society so they don't take their cruelty out on people (usually). A person will most likely be ridiculed by the latter person if they bring up the proposition that a feeling is suffering unnecessarily. Sometimes these malicious individuals commit particularly disgusting and painful methods of live feeding just to get off to the negative reaction (one video I certainly won’t post involves alligator snapping turtles and drowning mice). I shouldn't really have to lift a mental finger to quickly dispel the myths against why this is a morally unacceptable practice.

‘Live Feeding Is Natural’

So what? To proclaim that live feeding is natural as an excuse suggests that everything natural is desirable; everything from shorter lifespan, disease, exposure to prey, and other forms of negative stress. It also suggests that the mission of keeping captive animals is to replicate every aspect of nature. In reality, when people keep animals, we select which aspects of nature we want to preserve for the health and wellness of the animal (nutrition, metal stimulation, adequate space) in the hopes of managing a happy and healthy specimen. It is similar to the life we design for ourselves. We omit many aspects of nature that are pointless, and the idea of keeping an animal captive is not natural from the start. Generally, nowhere in this objective is a live feeding needed to achieve this goal. Also, the ethical animal caretaker should not cause any harm to any feeling being ‘unnecessarily’. Caring for a captive animal does not mean that the keeper doesn't owe welfare standards to the prey, and this should apply to the animals you choose to consume yourself as well. Your captive animal's environment is NOT nature; this is an environment you are managing.

Some people become wrapped up in the ‘beauty and wonder of nature’ that they forget (or sugar coat) that pain and suffering is a part of it. Picture tragedies in the news and the sense of horror that goes through your mind when you learn a person was attacked by an animal or person. Picture the solemn sadness experienced when a child dies of a terminal illness; those are all real natural life events that are inevitable. Why is predator-prey drama so beautiful and wondrous unless it’s happening to a human? Well, the answer is obvious there. This is the problem of romanticizing nature.

Animals in the wild must kill to obtain their nutrition, but does this equate to enjoyment? Yes and no; animals need an outlet for their energy, but it absolutely doesn’t need to be taken out on a live animal. I’m sure domesticated cats achieve great fun when torturing their prey, but the same level of enjoyment can be achieved with an unfeeling plastic mouse attached to a piece of string….this is hardly a tremendous inconvenience to the pet owner. Dogs posses chase instincts that are retained from the prey drive of their ancestors; a ball and a non-lazy owner will suffice over a living rabbit. Perhaps a living animal to play with will occasionally be a tad more exciting for some animals, but the animals can certainly do without it. It does not begin to approach ‘cruelty’ to disappoint an animal by disallowing them to kill; causing prey to suffer DOES.

It confounds me how basic ethical standards evaporate when it comes to the welfare of the prey. Even seemingly decent people are willing to forfeit a painless death for an animal in the name of their pet’s ‘playtime’. This just adds insult to injury when it comes to the questionable status of captive animal ethics. If animal rights groups ever had a good reason to be anti-pet ownership, they can start with people’s attitudes regarding live feedings.

Don't reptiles enjoy killing?

Don’t be ridiculous, reptiles respond to stimuli. They do not ‘enjoy’ killing in any kind of way, especially snakes, and snake owners are often the biggest offenders.

I have eight snakes (although one feeds exclusively on eggs, and I can pretty much guarantee she doesn’t enjoy the process), and I’ve learned just how stimuli-strict they are. None of them will see live prey as long as they are mine, and I’ve dealt with some finicky feeders. Ball pythons are immensely popular but they can have feeding problems, even with live prey. I have 2 ball pythons that are temporarily housed together, and their feeding problems obviously occur due to that situation. When experiencing feeding problems, stress plays an important factor. Wait until your snake is searching for food (all of my ball pythons sit with their heads out of their hides) and gently introduce the prey. Make sure the situation feels ‘secure‘ as ball pythons are a very timid species.

I have one pied ball python that has always been problematic. In fact, he wouldn’t eat for more than a month after I got him. I utilized several tricks to get him feeding, and he still fluctuates now and then with the same exact patterns. Once he initiates a strike and constricts (or has the prey gently inserted in his jaw by myself), he must immediately be covered with a blanket or placed in a pillow case. One of the most important things to remember with ball pythons is that they have heat sensors on their snouts. Heating the prey with a heat lamp reversed problem-feeding behaviors of 3 of my pythons. My colubrids (the ‘thin’ non-python snakes) will eat any defrosted mouse at almost any time.

If baby large pythons refuse to take dead food, don’t shrug you shoulders and submit to feeding them live for the rest of their lives. It’s your responsibility as a pet owner to continue the process of trying to get the animal to convert. Aside from the welfare of the prey, if you take no initiative to get a baby ball python to eat dead food, once the animal reaches an adult size you will be dealing with live rats. Live rats can maim a snake even if you are watching the entire time. Is laziness worth this?

There’s no data that I’m aware of that confirms a ‘humane’ way of dispatching small arthropods (and limited data on whether or not they can experience pain or stress in the manner of vertebrates) so in this case I won't complain about live feedings with these animals, especially since the process replicates natural feedings with no laziness of the predator to cause prolonged suffering. Although, I admit I have a panther chameleon that is trained to take non-live insects. It certainly was a tedious process, yet it provided a lot of perspective at reptilian ‘thinking’ for myself. The fact still remains that the idea that reptiles enjoy or get anything out of killing is laughable.

Nutrition

Even if you are a food purist who believes that food should be consumed in its raw form to achieve optimal nutritional, you can still feed humanely pre-killed prey (this is also another option for finicky eaters). I'm not convinced that freezing would degenerate nutritional content of whole prey to any level that would be even moderately harmful. The success of millions of animals sustained on this type of diet is testament to that. If your snake or mammal is receiving whole prey, it’s already much better off than the millions of dogs and cats receiving only processed and cooked kibble.

Ethical

If you claim to be such, or care at all about animal welfare, excuses for live feedings do not exist in reality. It all comes down to how concerned you are with the welfare of the animals you keep, even if it is temporary. The ‘wonder’ of nature does not cancel out suffering, and captivity is not nature. If you feed a mouse to a snake that willingly takes non-live food, you might as well have strangled the animal and committed the resulting suffering yourself. There is a significant difference between suffering leading to death, and just death. As we bring up reasons to justify keeping captive animals, we should never allow the living prey to experience fear and suffering in our closed human-controlled environment to the most reasonable extent possible.