>I have a question about feeding mice/rats or whatever, live or dead.
>Can feeding them to ferrets cause cancer or problems?  Aren't mice,
>etc. bred for lab use and seem to have the cancer gene?
 
hi Eleanor,
 
Most feeder animals available are bred specifically for food for reptiles
and carnivorous mammals.
 
The breeder's business depends on their animals being clean and disease
free.
 
Sometimes feeder mice are available from reputable suppliers who do
breed for research, however the ones sold for food are any in excess
of the amount needed to ship off to the research projects (ie they are
pre-research).
 
>I myself am against feeding live prey to any animal and feel it is
>torture.
 
I have often wondered if an animal killed by a quick canine to the back
of the neck suffers more or less than an animal killed by co2.
 
I do think an animal suffers if the predator (cat, ferret, etc) toys
with it, rather than killing it quickly, and I don't think allowing our
predators to do this is fair to the prey animal.
 
>Everyone has a right to their opinion as far as feeding prey, live or
>dead.
 
Absolutely.  However I also think we have an obligation to try to ensure
no animal in our care suffers (be that pet ferret, feeder mouse or
goldfish in our pond).
 
This is one problem with kibble - from what I know about the meat
processing industry, most of the animals that end up in kibble are
treated & killed less than humanely.  Do the animals in kibble
definitely suffer?  We have no way of knowing.
 
If an owner chooses to feed a chicken directly (rather than ground up,
cooked and pressed into pellets) at least they can find out where the
chicken is from and how it was treated, and use their buying power
accordingly, should they choose to.
 
shona
[Posted in FML issue 5200]