Am I being inhumane?

I would be more concerned with them climbing out of the trashcan. I've had an MTS do that once.

I love my ramshorns, but before I saw how they benefit my tank, I would squish them against the glass & kill them instantly. I feel bad if I drop one while moving plants & find it's dried up carcass later - yet I have no problems poisoning the slugs in my garden. It's a perception thing ; )

inhumane is a strange term. for example, if you buy non fair trade chocolate, you run the risk of supporting human trafficking. (fun fact, a lot of cacao comes from farms that supposedly employ slave labor) however, most people don't perceive buying a hershey's bar as an immoral act, mainly because the potential immorality happens out of sight out of mind... Peter Singer has some interesting (if not somewhat extreme) thoughts on the matter, if you're into philosophy and stuff. anyway, like dwh said, it's a perception thing.

battered said:

For some reason, I really don't like ramshorn snails. I have a couple in my tanks, and any time I see a baby ramshorn, I'll just pick it out of the tank and throw it in a trashcan. Honestly, just because I'm too lazy to squeeze/kill them. I can't bring myself to get rid of the adults (I only have like 2 bigger sized ones). For some reason, I'm not bothered as much by the MTS I have, maybe because they stay in the sand during the day?

Is throwing them in the trash inhumane? What do you guys do?

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I mean honestly, squish it or flush it. Maybe it'll have a chance to live in the sewer or something. How hard is it to squish your fingers together while walking to the can.

that being said, i have few qualms eating cheap chocolate and throwing baby snails into the compost.

Yeah either put it down quick or leave it be. Start an outdoor grow tank and toss them in there. Just putting it in the trash to waste away doesn't seem right.

@FriendsNotFood - yeah, I've considered that :O

@driftwoodhunter - I feel bad when that happens too...I know they're beneficial, it's just that there are already enough of them, along with all the other cleaners I have in the crew.

@aweeby - the reason why I don't feel too bad getting rid of the snails is because they keep reproducing no matter what...it'd be different if I had a limited supply of these.

feed less and they'll lay less eggs for you to kill.

Everything that lives on this planet is food for something else. A smashed snail will be eaten by the fish, shrimp other snails. In the trash it's food for bacteria.

There's no 'Nice' way to kill anything, the best we can offer is fast.

Life in the food chain, some days you win, some days you loose.

Guess it's time to start squishing them, then! Thanks guys.

Anything you do will make some other living thing suffer. Eat a steak, kill a cow. Eat an egg, hens have to stay in coops. Have a strwaberry shake and a group of people have to do stoop labor. Drive a car, wound a butterfly. I'm just happy I'm not a mule trekking down the Grand Canyon with a ton of blubber on my back.

Naw, you're fine. Just a thought though, if you do squish one be sure to was your hands. Snails are bacteria power houses.

I feed them to my puffer, nom nom nom nom. Those snails will never meet a cuter death.

Trickerie said:

I mean honestly, squish it or flush it. Maybe it'll have a chance to live in the sewer or something. How hard is it to squish your fingers together while walking to the can.

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Flushing it is also not cool. Invasive species are no joke. As someone from Florida I'm surprised you don't know more about this.

Squish the little buggers. I do it in the tank as they make good food for the other inhabitants.

OverStocked said:

Calling something you think is immoral or dumb "retarded" isn't cool.

Flushing it is also not cool. Invasive species are no joke. As someone from Florida I'm surprised you don't know more about this.

Squish the little buggers. I do it in the tank as they make good food for the other inhabitants.

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Because suggesting a way to give a creature a chance to live and having an argument on invasive species has anything to do with each other lol? .. Yeah, no. The question was about being humane, not whether setting an invasive species free is legal or not. I stated an opinion in regards to his original question. Picking up the snail, throwing it in the trash live because he "cant be bothered" to squish them is, in my opinion, like putting a piece of trash next to a trash can because you can't bothered to open the lid.

personally, i squish mine. i know they may be beneficial but i dont want to take the chance that if i accidently overfeed, they will explode.
on the whole invasive species deal, at school, someone who lived in my townhouse previously flushed duckweed and it clogged the drains around campus. so i just throw it in the trash or compost. good for terrestrial plants!

Ramshorns i feed to my puffers. MTS I throw in the trash because I'm hoping they'll die and not end up in the sewer or water system. I've seen how hard it is to kill them.

I flinch when I read about squishing them. Not that I care about them but as a word to the wise. Use something hard to squish them. It can make a nasty infection and a very sore finger if the shell finds the right spot.