Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking at some ackie videos on youtube and this guy posted a video of his red ackie eating a live leopard gecko. I found it to be sickening. It is interesting that I'm sure most of us would find that less disturbing than if it were eating a more mainstream food item. But I'm fairly sure this idiot wasnt interested in the nutritional value more than he was interested in the entertainment value.

Yeah... I've seen it. People commented saying 'its natural'...and that makes it even more disturbing. And watching that right after danceswithsavs videos, is HEARTBREAKING. Its horrible what people do with their pets these days. First, theres ignorance, than its on purpose. :/

Oh, you have bit of hitler syndrome. Some liveforms are superior to others. His(hitler) was about races or country origin.

I have to wonder what makes a leopard gecko superior to a mouse or cricket, or the esteemed roach(a long history of survival on earth)

I have an ozzie book that has a pic of a diamond python eating a baby LACIE. Dude whats up with that. Those python people are nuts. Oh, I have a pic of a whitethroat eating a woma. Dang us monitor people are nuts.

Heres the deal, monitors eat what they eat. If they were wild, they WOULD EAT WHAT THEY EAT. Without judgement as to is commerial value or its emotional value to humans.

Gouldi/rudibus consume baby perenties, ackies consume kings monitors and brevicauda, Perenties consume all manner of flavis, babies and adults. All consume all manner of rare and common geckos. A friend found a undiscribed monitor in the stomach of a V.tristis, I found an undiscribed monitor in the stomach of a V.gouldi.

The point is clear, if something holds value to YOU, do not feed it to a monitor. If it does not hold enough value to you, to keep it alive, then if you wish, feed it to a monitor. Remember, the captive monitors, HAVE TO EAT SOMETHING.

In captivity your only a servant that brings the monitors their food. Its the monitor/s that are judging whether its food or not.

Remember, by human made tests, a mouse is superior to a lizard, they are smarter(work a maze better) are more successful(larger range, invaded more habitat) etc.

If you do not like seeing reptiles eating other reptiles you like(hold a value in) don't do it and don't watch it. But don't tell others what they should do. See, that fits that hitler thing too. The hitler thing is, holding value(as superior) to a certain type of something, then encouraging/forcing others to do the same.

A story, a couple of years ago, I acquired a pair of Vine snakes, I always wanted to work with that species. I got small vine snakes. Vinesnakes eat lizards. Thats what they do.

So I fed them lizards. For some reason, they did not consume these two lizards, so I fed those lizards crickets. They grew up and were a sexual pair. So I started thinking those feeder lizards would copulate and breed. Then the stupid vinesnake ate one, then the other. I got rid of the vinesnakes, I like the lizards better. But thats just me, and for now.

I do agree with you, I would rather keep a leopard gecko then a roach or cricket or mouse or superworm. I don't like roaches what so ever(my wife forced me to think that way) so I do not feed them to monitors. Cheers

FR, I see your point in every way, but I think you either didnt watch the video, or didnt understand it. The man was not feeding the ackie a gecko, he put them together, watched the leo get torn up, and took it out. It was ENTERTAINMENT. Like cockfighting, exept in this case, one must be a baby chick. If the man was FEEDING his ackie a small snake/gecko/infertile egg/ or something else herp related that people dont usually feed, I'd see no problem. But for entertainment, its disturbing.

Btw, look at the mess you made down their dude! lol

Theres a simple cure for that video then, CAll Peta on him/her. I believe there are laws in most states that prohibat that kind of entertainment.

By the way, thats why I go not look at stuff I do not want to see. That way I do not have to rat out someone for being STUPID.

Yea, I do not read most of the posts, so I really do not know whats going one down there. I read a couple and it seems armageton is near. hahahahahahahaha Cheers

Lol, your right Frank! XD armageddon it is.

Oh, and about PETA... I hope you were kidding. Do you know anything really about them? A greedy group of scumbags, criminals, and arsonists. They kill over 95% of the animals they take in. And not by euthanasia. They KILL them, and many are disposed of in dumpsters and back alleys so no one finds out about the 100 dead puppies/kittens/whatever. :/

Boy do you need to get out more. Some of all agencies do that. Zoos, vets, all have good and bad. Thats something inherent in humans. No matter what your talking about, from dishwashers to popes, there are good and bad ones.

With monitors, there seems to be a lack of good ones. Cheers

Well said Frank.

-----
Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
36 rats
40 mice
54 chickens
3 beardies
1 black rat snake
~1000 hissers
1 giant milipede

This could be as you said, someone looking for entertainment value, or someone who was allowing the ackie to do what it does naturally, eat smaller lizards, or it could also be someone like an old friend of mine who had more leopard geckos than he could shake a stick at.
In the latter case when you have them constantly reproducing, and you couldnt give them away, shy of paying someone to take them (even then it may not happen, like the emperor scorpions he had). You make use of them.
Regardless of the case you either decide whether you want to watch it or not.
Personally Ive had smaller lizards that had to have their population reduced in the past, and many eggs from smaller lizards that were purposefully fed to monitors in my collection. One major difference, I didnt video it to shock others or to demonstrate reality.
Keep in mind this kind of thing appears this time of year, just like the crime rate going up, after all school is out and kids are bored.

No, this man does this for FUN. He let the leo get beat up, LOSE ITS TAIL (which the ackie didnt even eat), and almost lose an eye. Then he takes it out and 'spares' it. And then come the comments... "That was cool!" "what a big bad lizard! i want one so mine can live 5 months and die like yours!"

*rolls eyes*

but I do understand feeding off excess eggs and small animals. nothing wrong with that. although its not preferable, i wouldnt mind if someone did just as you mentioned.

hahahah that's funny a lep gecko getting wasted bothers you.

hahahahha

Tom

If the man was simply feeding his ackie, it wouldnt be a problem. The PROBLEM is that he let it get beat up, literally lose an arm and a leg (and a tail...and an eye), and he just takes it out. I have no problem with feeding off a leopard gecko (although I do not prefer it at all). But the guy, laughing in the background, watches the leo get eaten alive and beat up, then he takes it out! He could just put it in there, and the ackie would eat it. But, some people enjoy watching others in pain, especially when they are defenseless.

Doesnt that disturb you?

Theres a very basic rule with many people- a lizard is a lizard.

Dosnt matter if its a leo or an anole.

Personally, yes, I think its wrong to feed in that manner.

Not in the least because it was a cute lil leo that gets munched.

I have a problem with it because
A. the chances of it being done for anything short of entertainment (why would you use a $20 leo vs a $5 anole?) are almonts nil,
and
B. they posted it on the internet.

Theres no need for that- if you want to be a sadistic person, if you enjoy watching one animal slowly kill another, do it in the privacy of your own home and dont share it with other sadistic people to give them ideas.

This had NOTHING to do with feeding a monitor, and you all know that.

Nobody is going to do feed... no scratch that,THAT was not feeding.

That was, as someone said it earlier, a rigged cockfight.

These were 2 animals, one of which predatory in nature, that were put together to fight it out, knowing that one would be injured/killed while the other would be virtually unharmed.

Humans enjoy this kind of thing- horse fighting in Korea, dog fighting around the world and the cock fighting south of the border are just some of the examples of humans watching animals kill each other, not for any real purpose, but simply for the 'sport' of it.

They will remove it if you feel it was wrong.
Also report it to the authorities for the guy laughing, if it seems cruel they may find him and arrest him. After all an example that involved 2 other lifeforms from a home video a few years ago resulted in a few felony convictions with teenagers (13-17) with good long sentences. Another example of something that commonly happens during summer when school is out.
By the way the prices above on $5 for a anole or $20 for a leo, are retail in overpriced stores. If you breed your own or buy at sources that sell them for feeders (yes Ive seen leos for sale as feeders for $1 each or less) you can get them far below those prices, in fact most leos in reptile shows start much lower than $20 and wont sell, it was common to see $4-$6 and no one is interested. I have seen anoles for .25 each or less as feeders.

I still dont see why this matters in the least.

You kill for clothes, furniture, food, etc...all for no reason but entertainment and convenience. You dont NEED meat, you choose it because it tastes good (entertainment) and readily available (convenience). You dont NEED leather shoes, you choose them because they feel good, last a long time and look good. For your own entertainment, for your convenience...YOU kill for these two things EVERYDAY. You dont record it, hell you dont even WITNESS it, but YOU DO IT, everyday.

But some guy lets his ackie maim and kill his leo and OH NO better call the PC police! OH NO better tell the authorities!

I mean we all have a 'line'. I wouldnt want to see puppies eaten. Or kittens. Because I like those animals, they are important to me, I have placed a false intrinsic value on them. I am aware of that, and I try to be sensitive to that when I feed my reptiles parakeets for example. Some people just love parakeets, go figure.

But a LEO? That's your line, that's the point when it all just goes too far for you huh? HAHAHHAHA. I mean I would not do what that guy did, I would let him eat the leo, not pull him out. That's the only thing I can see that is wrong for me.

But whatever, to each their own. I'll save my outrage for something more significant like all those poor worms that drown when it rains.

Tom

so what if he fed it a hatchling monitor? Would that then have your attention? I didn't see the video, have no interest but there's a difference between feeding a monitor, and watching a monitor rip apart an animal for fun. Sound like the monitor didn't eat any of the gecko, so then this was for fun for the human.
Anyway, I keep leo's, and I think your comment was inane, because you might cry if it was switched and I gave a monitor to one of my boas just to watch it constrict it, then took the monitor out and said how cool it was...
anyway, have a good one

an ongoing issue with more than just reptiles... The predatory fish forums are fired up about it as well as others. The best thing to do is to not bring it attention as it is the attention that is desired by these individuals. You know like the same ones saying that monitors and other herps are invasive and should not be pets are the same ones cutting them loose for complaints... Best to you- Mike

Well, I guess I'm not a big fan of the Hitler anology. Like I said, its interesting what a video like this evokes. The act of the monitor killing the leo is mother nature to the core. However, the guy who made the video is just a plain creep. There has to be something wrong with you if you enjoy that sort of thing. I've owned pythons and boas and I'd have to say, I never got excited about watching them constrict rats. But it had to be done. But if I were to spend whatever on a siamese cat and.....you get the idea. There has to be some professionalism in owning pets like reptiles or else our priviledge of owning certain reptiles may go away. Obviously Ackies are here to stay but you know what I'm saying.

Hello Lowflier,
I have to disagree with the ackies are here to stay comment... History in the "hobby" has shown that the misconception of "there are plenty of those being produced..." has in some cases ended in the total loss of a species in collections. I would definitely say that monitors in general are particularly vunerable to this "hobby extinction" as few are successfully breeding them at all and with consistency. I hope this will change soon but they aren't the same as snakes or beardies. I'm not saying that they are harder to breed but rather they cannot be kept successfully in the stripped down cages that some succeed with these other animals. They need what they need and we don't always succeed at giving it. When they(ackies) are given what they need in every household(that they are kept in) then your statement will have a better chance of holding truth... Best to you- Mike