I'm slightly irked by the "it's vermin so who cares" attitude. I think it's certainly disgusting that this mother made her child murder his PET.
I had a pet mouse, Piggy, and if someone had forced me to kill him? I'd have been MORTIFIED. I find it ridiculous that it'd be deemed "okay" to kill any pet.
Dog, Cat, Bird, Mouse, Rat, Ferret, Iguana, Snake...
Any animal. To abuse any animal that way is horrible and if it's not a crime to murder a mouse that is someone's PET? Or force your child to murder his PET, no matter WHAT animal? I think it's about freakin' time that gets fixed. Like now.
As stupid as what I'm about to say sounds? I'm going to say it anyway. In the past of America, Indians were "savages"... just next to animals.... Slaves? Were treated the same.... next to animals... or most of the time lesser than animals. In Ireland's history? The British treated the Irish as if THEY were savages...
Racism, right? Specie-ism seems to be the new trend. We are humans, and thus the world revolves around us because we happen to be able to talk. So we can treat animals like they're meaningless things? If the human race were to be wiped out? The world may keep turning and the animals on it would keep on living. I find it incredible that people don't find animal abuse morally wrong...
I don't know. I just have a major problem with PET abuse. The hamster was minding it's own damn business when these people bought him/her. And then one day these people bought him and interrupted his life and then because the kid fails his class his mother, an absolute psychopath, forces him to kill the poor thing? The hamster did nothing wrong but exist in the wrong house at the wrong time.
This is unbelievable and there needs to be some kind of action against this... really.