The mice frantically scrambled around the cardboard box, trying to find a way out, trying to escape from their predator. As they tried to climb the edges of the box, the snake caught them, one by one, swallowing them whole.
Little, probably four or five year old, me would be fascinated as I went with my dad to the pet store to buy live mice sold specifically to be his snake’s food. I would watch the battle between predator and prey, knowing the snake had to win because the mice had nowhere to run.
That sounds brutal. The hunt is how it happens in the wild; however, in the wild the prey get a chance to escape. There is a blurred ethical area with giving a snake live prey to hunt. It is the closest a pet snake can get to living out its instincts, but it can be dangerous for the snake if the mice fight back, and it feels morally wrong to make mice go through being eaten alive.
The traditional, oversimplified, animal rights philosophy is animals should live without being of any use or doing any service to humans. I do not agree with this philosophy as I think a world like this is unrealistic and a little extreme. I do think animals should have some legal rights, but I side closer to the animal welfare approach.
People should try to give animals under their care good and satisfying lives. Simply, this means animals should live in a suitable environment, with a suitable amount of other animals, have a good and natural diet, cope well with their life, have normal behavioral patterns, and be protected from unnecessary suffering.
Some animal rights activists believe a vegan or vegetarian world would be ideal. While there are benefits to that lifestyle, making everyone cut out all animal products from their diet is unreasonable. However, places that farm animals to be food, or for their other products, should treat their animals well. Animals should have good lives and living conditions, and, if they are killed, they should be killed quickly, painlessly, and humanely.
Another aspect of the animal rights philosophy is to get rid of hunting, and, while the idea of killing animals as a hobby seems wrong, hunting specific animals is important. For ecosystems to thrive, they need to be balanced, and humans are part of the ecosystem. If animals like deer were not hunted they would become overpopulated and mess up the natural balance.
The animal rights philosophy is obviously against feeding snakes live food, and, in general, I agree with this. As mice are highly intelligent rodents, feeding them live to snakes, unless completely necessary, is just subjecting them to needless suffering. A situation where it would be necessary is when a snake cannot be trained to eat its food pre-killed. In these cases, the snakes must be fed live prey, otherwise they will starve.
When thinking about animal rights, it is important to think about both how the animals and society will be affected. It is not logical to completely cut animals out of the human lifestyle. However, while it is important for society to have animals be part of its lifestyle, it is equally as important for society to keep the welfare of animals in mind.