ethical question about using dead animals

L

lubesicle

Member
need to have a frozen mouse in my film.
it's difficult to find fake but lifelike baby mice on ebay.

i think it's ethically wrong to buy frozen mice (snake food) from a pet store, film them, and throw them out.

even one mouse in the trashcan I feel is a waste of a life.

But is it okay to do it as long as i feed that mouse to a friend who has a snake or carnivorous pet?

is another possibility to go to a bio lab and ask if they have any dead mice that were discarded?

i'm an animal lover, have pets, but this definitely confuses me, and i want to do it the right way.
thanks in advance

-e
 
I'd say what you are doing is fine. Buy one from a pet store, then give it to a friend who has a snake, take it back to the pet store and feed it to one of their snakes, or hell, have a funeral for it!
 
lubesicle said:
But is it okay to do it as long as i feed that mouse to a friend who has a snake or carnivorous pet?
Click to expand...

If the friend is going to eat it why would they have to own a snake or carnivorous pet? :tongue:

It's vermin, entire careers are built around killing them. The RSPCA (or ASPCA, whatever it's called there) can be a bunch of wowsers sometimes so I won't say they will agree with me (Rolf de Heer filmed a dead cat in Bad Boy Bubby which caused an uproar in Italy...even though he sourced it from the RSPCA in Australia, ended up saving several cats used elsewhere in the film from the shelter on 'death row' when he couldn't bring himself to return them, giving them to various cast and crew, and was monitored by the RSPCA at all times - Rolf himself an avid cat lover). I don't see a problem with your plan, or get one from a pest controller if you don't want to deprive a snake of a meal, and call your local *SPCA if you're really concerned and get the real answer. I'm sure the question is free, there might be a fee to have them observe the shoot.

The key issue comes down to whether the animal was mistreated while alive. A secondary issue arises concerning the dignity of the corpse. If neither of these are going to be an issue I'd be okay with it. If you contact your local *SPCA organisation and have them observe/sign off on it then you can sleep at night and get to put the disclaimer in the credits with their logo.
 
You can't mess with personal morality - because it's not like an opinion, it's a belief, but let's look at facts. The mouse is dead, and has already been frozen. Objections seem directed to the people who did this, and the beliefs of the people who condone it to provide food for their pets. If the deed is done, then disposing of the creature once you have used it in the video is probably easier on the soul than allowing it to be eaten, isn't it.

So if you don't have an issue with the physical aspect, then why are you worrying about disposal - because the same result would happen if it was eaten, wouldn't it?

If a real mouse is crucial, then using one already killed seems fine to me? If you use a hunk of raw beef, does it matter if you eat it after, or throw it away? The cow was still butchered?
 
Personally, I would only do it, if it serves a purpose other mice would benefit from, eg if on topic of your movie is animal testing (and how mice and men don´t correlate physically).
Saying "well, it´s dead/done anyway" could be used as an excuse for many things and just because someone else "did it", it doesn´t free me from the following moral consequences.
Just my 2c of course;)
One other thing: Are you sure, you can´t shoot the scene with a fake frozen mouse...?
 
I'm struggling, and failing, to understand what those 'moral consequences' would possibly be . Does every shoot that includes a scene with a plate of human food have to grapple with this too? My 2cents.
 
Forgive me, but in the UK we have a perception of the States as a place where anything moving is shot by hunters with big guns. I wasn't even sure there was an animal rights strand. I'm not trying to offend, but our TV here is full of US TV shows where we commonly see hunting - my favourite has numerous episodes where deer, bears, turkeys and all sorts of creatures are routinely hunted by members of the public. I rather assumed that if these big creatures can be legally hunted, then vermin would kind of be forgotten and not worried about. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone - but the idea of worrying about the after death usage of a mouse seemed to contrast badly with the concept of guns, hunting and animal rights? A poor shot, injuring but not killing a deer, perhaps being left to die in agony does seem a bit different from mice humanely killed for per food - or is it just me?
 
Life is a cycle and all living things, including humans, wind up at the bottom of the food chain sooner or later, even if it's as food for mold. bacteria, and worms. Nature does not distinguish.

I think there is an important moral role for treating living things humanely with respect for the essence of their being and the nature of their life. But after death what is left is just matter.
 
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