Did This Science Teacher Go Too Far With This Demonstration?

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You be the judge: Keep in mind, this was a voluntary after-school demonstration. About 60 students showed up including some elementary school students with their parents. This showed up on You Tube and made the newspaper.

Note: Not recommended for the squeamish


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUOFFN5k_Gg

Well, what exactly are the students learning from this? I don't really see the point.. the same thing could be seen on National Geographic or Animal Planet.

Holy cow.

I couldn't watch the process but I have some doubts about the ethics of this. If the point was for students to understand the process of a snake swallowing its prey, as another poster said, there are clips of this readily available and procuring a snake and rabbit just for demonstration would be wrong. If however, someone had access to a snake that needed feeding anyway it would probably be ok, particularly as attendance was optional. I can't imagine why it was necessary to put it on youtube or have a newspaper story. That starts to reek of self-aggrandisement, so that part is probably unnecessary and undesirable. On the other hand he might be going for promotion and thinks portraying himself as a high profile, really trendy teacher will get him the job.

given all of the other snakes present in the room, and given how little encouragement the python needed to go for the rabbit, I suspect the snake was just getting its regular feeding. The purpose in doing it as a demonstration is that it's not the same when it's really in front of you as it is on a tv screen. Dissecting something oneself is not the same as seeing it dissected in a film; going to a sports event oneself is not the same as seeing it on tv.

Então? Eu tenho comido coelho. Eu também, apesar de não serem comidos vivos stuff coelho. É perfeitamente normal na minha família.

imo i could have been dead already,,, we took a field trip to the zoo once and they showed us how they fed their snakes, much like that... but the food was already dead

there were some YOUNG kids i saw there........... i'd say parent permission at the least

Some snakes refuse to eat anything that's dead, so the only way to keep them alive in captivity is on live food.

I don't think they went too far. I agree that it feels a little different seeing in person rather than on a screen. Course, the kids talked and talked non stop, I wandered when they would shut up and actauly look at what was going on.

Pythons eating rabbits? Smaller snakes eating rats? Natural.

I don't see what's wrong with it. It's a part of life. Humans and most domestic animals eat other animals. The difference here is that you see the snake killing the rabbit before consuming it.

How is this any different from taking a kid fishing?

It is preferable to feed captive reptiles pre-killed food because of the danger involved in unmonitored live feedings. However, this live feeding was done in a very controlled manner; the python and the rabbit were not left alone in an enclosure together (which could lead to the rabbit harming the snake if the snake was not hungry).

There are several popular ways to pre-kill reptile food, including: CO2 poisoning, breaking the neck, freezing, and hitting the animal over the head. Are any of these really more humane than being suffocated by a constrictor?

Is there anything suitable for a live demonstration that has never been filmed? If movies are preferable to live demonstrations, then what is the purpose of the latter in any circumstance?

I don't see whats wrong with it. Now if the rabbit ate the snake, holy cow, that'd be some messed up stuff. Definitely something wrong if that happened.

rabbit

I don't see anything wrong with it as a voluntary learning presentaion, although there was a sort of circus-style atmosphere present in the crowd ( they should have been more quiet to respect others in the audience). Nature is nature. Snakes eat things. Big snakes eat big things. Also, they could watch as the rabbit traveled down the digestive tract ( the lump in the snake) and discuss the food chain, digestion and metabolism if the teacher wanted to take it even further as a learning tool.
No one was forced to watch the feeding, and anyone who does not like to see this does not have to watch it and then complain about it afterwards. That is like going to see a known horror movie and then complaining later on that you dodn't like horror movies. If you don't like, don't go. Basic truth: snakes are predators. They eat other animals. Being in captivity does not negate this basic truth. Nature is not always pretty ( it often isn't). Many snakes will not eat dead food, as well ( some will, and that's nice... but it isn't the case often times). The teacher should not get in trouble for teaching. The only thing that should be stressed is safety ( no students/etc touching or approaching the snake while it is out of its enclosure, etc...).

^ agreed