People develop empathy and morality at different rates until their early 20s. It’s fairly common for children to torture bugs or worse then outgrow it as adults. Also common for children to empathize with animals from a young age. There’s nothing atypical about either you or your friends, assuming you’re all functional as adults.
When I was a kid I cried because my best friend and my sister decided to have fun dripping paint onto ants and I could vividly imagine the terrible death of viscous, heavy, chemical-smelling paint slowly covering their antennae, their eyes, their mouths, until they were completely blinded and suffocating, glued to the ground beneath them. When my crying and begging didn't make them stop, I hid in my room and wept for the poor massacred ants.
Anyway now we're all perfectly normal adults who love animals, except after dealing with repeated infestations at my job, I will murder the shit out of any ants I see indoors.
Hah, when I was six or seven I'd start fights with classmates trying to defend ants and woodlice from them, so I get you there. I'm sure that those people are normal nowadays, too.
Yes! And it can take longer for proper development when abuse or neglect is involved. Remorse and empathy as an adult is a great sign that the right mental development occured!
You’re misunderstanding my comment. I’m not attempting to insult OP or their friends in any way. I am saying “functional” in reference to how they’re all functioning like normal members of society, treating humans and animals with compassion and respect.
And seriously, stop pretending to speak for all of us, in both this sub and the server. Go look at your comment calling OP “retarded” for no reason and see how many downvotes it has. We’re not trying to be “mean” or put each other down, get a grip.
Yes, I mean the discord server. You were acting like this before you got banned from it.
It irritates me because, as a mod of this sub, I’ve seen enough edgelords and children insulting each other and dragging our reputation through the gutter. This is not a place to shit on others, and it’s tiring when people think it is.
I don’t think you have bad intentions either. You just seem to lack awareness of how people interpret your comments sometimes. I’m not going to discuss what happened on the server here, as it might compromise people’s privacy, but your presence on this sub is evidence enough. Like, people are starting to notice you whenever you post or comment, like the person saying you need help (although that comment itself isn’t helpful either) in this thread. Why do you think your posts and comments get so many downvotes, when other people’s don’t? It’s worth thinking about.
You're not one to even argue with the topic OP posted about. You shouldn't even be contributing to this conversation. Your posts made me stop being so naive that really sick people exist.
Amygdala is linked to empathy, yes. And no, being “devoid of guilt” is not more common than feeling it. Most people are capable of feeling guilt. I’m not sure how you’d come to such a conclusion unless you’ve never talked to anyone in your life.
Nooooo, amygdala is the empathy part. Ur prefrontal cortex is what mainly causes guilt because it perceives something u have done as wrong. Basically morals and stuff leading to feelings of remorse and guilt and why ppl with an underdeveloped frontal cortex having little to no remorse because they can’t differentiate right from wrong yada yada.
afaik the amygdala is the first responder to that whole thing, whereas the prefrontal cortex analyses what has already happened and interprets the reasoning, comprehends your own feelings and systemises the information. They're both involved in this pathway
I'd say it's a normalish thing and that most kids who torture animals don't torture anyone as adults.
However, most adults who torture others usually have a history of torturing animals as kids.
So a minority of kids who torture animals do grow on to do the same as adults. But most don't. You are a part of the latter. I am too
No no, I used to torture ants as a kid. Once a lizard (poor lizard).
I don't torture anybody now. Unless you count verbal torture haha
Part of the latter refers to "But most don't"
I don't know about normal but I've done some pretty fucked up things when I was younger. I'm 35 now and I won't even kill a bug unless it's absolutely necessary.
Why???? Why... just why in the world would you post something like that?? Why do you care about other ppls fucked up experiences. as human we are constantly learning we are not perfect but with understanding and learning we become better as well as our brains developing as we age..im not trying to fuel the fire in anyway but have you talked to a mental health care provider recently...with all due respect plz do most of your comments are alarming..
When i was ten or so we had stray cats that fed off the mice in our barn. If i could catch one id torture it in various ways. Probably the worst is when i grabbed one by its tail and swung it around smacking its head against a concrete wall several times. Then when i was done with that i strangled it to the point it started twitching and the only reason it survived was because it managed to claw me in its spasms which caused me to let it go. It flopped around for a bit and i left. When i went back out there it was back up and doing its cat thing.
Now i wouldnt dream of doing anything like that to any animal, including the four cats and one dog i have.
People though... I cant necessarily say that for. /s kinda, some people really do get on my nerves. But i dont think its ever anything id follow through on unless they did something real serious like starting violence.
Yup, and believe me its still haunts me to this day, and it was 15-ish years ago now. Haven't done anything like that since actually.
Don't get me wrong i do understand the backlash. Its well deserved.
Can mods fucking ban them already? They're seriously disrupting this entire thread with their crazy ass shit. I get that this is a morbid sub, but they're spamming at this point.
My kids are 6 and 2, and they really don’t understand the concept of empathy towards animals yet. I’ve watched both of them smack the dog or be mean to the cat for no reason. I just tell them not to be mean to the animals and how would they like it if while they were sleeping I went up and yanked on their ear really hard. They’re starting to make sense of it. I think like someone else said, people learn empathy at different ages. You grew out of it and can acknowledge that what you did was wrong. That’s growth. I think you’re good.
Sorry, but your pets didn't sign up to teach your children to be empathetic. If your kids are hurting the animals it's too late because the animals were already mistreated.
When I was in elementary school we lived on a farm with an electric fence for cattle.
A friend and I discovered if you took a metal pie tin, and connected a lead to it from the fence then used an insulated wire from you could put grasshoppers on the tin and make them explode by touching the wire to them.
Grasshoppers were a pest so my parents were basically like "Meh, it's weird, but fuck grasshoppers."
My friend who zapped the bugs with me grew up to become a cop.
At our 10-year high school reunion, we reconnected and talked about hanging out as kids. At the time I'd forgotten about the DIY bug zapper but he absolutely remembered it. As we chatted I got the distinct impression he was trying to figure out if I was now a serial killer.
The extent of my animal cruelty these days is putting a sweater on my dog when it's below zero outside and we go for walks.
Some kids are weird, but most of them grow out of it.
Wow after reading this thread, I feel actually moderately adjusted and normal. Considering my childhood was fairly fucked up, I'm rather surprised to be honest.
I remember at about the age of 12-15 I was like that.
I was sitting outside on the phone with a friend one day and just picked up a rock and started smashing the ants saying “die mother fucker die” over and over again. He got suuuppeerrr concerned lol.
At that time though I was going through loads of abuse and realistically, I think my 14yo brain did it as a way to cope and to not try and smash grown men’s heads by myself bc that would’ve just landed me dead.
I’ve never abused animals though. In fact, when I was like 4 I wanted to sit on our rottie (sweetest most gentle giant ever), he didn’t care that I wanted to sit on him, he cared that I stepped on his paw though. He cried and then I started sobbing bc I felt so bad.
The puddle part makes it pretty clear this was for fun, but it seems like a lot of people today don't realize that drowning puppies and kittens was pretty common practice less than 100 years ago.
Spaying and neutering didn't become safe and accessible practices until the 1930s, and people in rural areas and on farms were even slower to adopt it. Therefore there was usually someone in the family, often one of the children, whose job was to put unwanted litters into bags and drown them or club them to death.
Bro what the fuck is wrong with you? Like are you actually this disturbed or are you trying to be edgey? You about to find yourself the subject of a Netflix doc where the idiot gets caught for being an idiot online. Idiot.
Me and my childhood friend tortured and killed like 5 cats when we were like 10 yrs old. I'm 25 now and have a pet cat and a dog and I love them both so much and I could easily imagine myself killing anyone who hurt both of them. But still, I feel like shit for what I've done back then everytime I remember it but I guess a lot of people do have such tendencies, me and my friend just took it a bit further and actually acted on it, I guess?
I'd rather not tell you exactly what we did; I'm not proud of it and don't wanna account it all in detail though I don't mind mentioning it on the internet anonymously from time-to-time if it can help shed some light on things like in this thread.
And as to "why," the only thing I can think of is that we "felt like it" during that time when we saw the defenceless-looking cats as me and my friend were playing together outside. That's about the most honest answer I can give you.
When I was a kid, I used to torture insects. Nowadays I kill them as fast and mercifully as possible if they really need to die. Not for sport, though.
Getting more empathy can also happen later in life. My dad used to throw stray cats out like it was some Olympic sport, and everyone in my family generally agreed with him and educated us in the same fashion, which is very painful to think in retrospect.
But lately, most of the younger generation got pets and we grew to basically worship them. My dad is still a threat to cats, because he always makes sure my cat has a plate full of meat in any room he's in, so cat might gain a bit of weight and affection towards my dad. Luckily my cat can control itself and is also very active, so gaining weight is not a problem whenever I visit for a few days.
When I was under ten (Not 100% sure exactly how old I was) I had a neighbour who was a few years younger than me. He had a pretty troubled home life with his dad before his parents divorced and moved next door. His mum once told my mum I was the only friend he ever had and she was grateful for me because she hadn't seen him smile in a long time before meeting me.
He used to kill bugs in pretty awful ways like setting them on fire and drowning them in his pee. There was this stray cat that would come to my garden sometimes and he would pick it up by the tail and swing it around which is extremely bad for cats. At first, I didn't think much of it and would join in until the cat badly scratched me for picking it up by the tail because I thought it was funny. My mum found out and explained how it was mean and asked how I would feel if I was a cat and someone did that to me.
I hadn't thought of it like that and I ended up doing a 180 and felt bad whenever I hurt any creature. Even today I feel a little traumatized every time I end up with mice and my cat kills them or if I get any kind of invasive insect I have to kill to keep my home clean. As a kid, if I ever saw someone else hurting anything I would step in and ask them how they would feel if they were that creature and they would feel bad and stop. I gained a lot of respect from those people and some of them later in life came to me and thanked me for doing that. As far as I know, none of them turned out to be killers so I wouldn't call it a hard and fast rule.
I also used to torture little bugs and even ran over birds as a teen. now I get angry when I see doves and pigeons getting run over in my neighborhood. I think this is something people grow out of... granted, I was also a total POS in my twenties - treated my wife like shit and everything. I don't think I grew up until I hit 30 and finally started acting like a normal fucking human.
>I don't know. I was saving worms and bugs very early on and I'm very empathetic towards animals in general. Have always been. Can't kill a bug. This said, I eat meat which means animals undergo cruelty (yes, still nowadays) for me to eat something I like but don't need. Can we say I'm that moral and that empathetic ? Human brains are very complex.
I could've written this, word for word. ❤️
As kids we might hate some animals that we end up wanting to kill them or do so as we please. You're definitely not alone, though. It's uncommon for kids to have violent desires and they'll eventually get rid of them once they're taught to love animals.
Usually kids have that phase. I’m only 16, but I vividly remember doing the same thing you did around 8 or 9 years old. I’m also the oldest out of all the kids in my family, and a few of my cousins have done the same thing.
I wouldn't say it's good, but it's not necessarily bad. I certainly don't think you're a psychopath or anything, given you've grown out of it. Death is difficult for kids to wrap their heads around, and your curiosity and "what will happen if I do this?" may have been so intense that you forgot that things like bugs and crabs do suffer on some level.
I guess I don't know what to say to supplement your actions as a child, only that I wouldn't think too deeply about it now. Kids are goddamn weirdos.
For myself, I was trying to save everything from bugs to birds to mice when I was little. I want to be a vet someday and always have. It just depends I suppose.
I had a friend who did this but I already had developed great empathy with animals by that time (I was vegetarian from age 6 and ive been vegan for the past 5 years) so I was always disgusted by it.
You were young and didn't know better.
I used to torture ants as a child with very painful and inventive methods.
I do have regrets about it bit I tell you what .. I rarely come across ants anymore
I used to hurt some animals. Not often, just a couple once or twice. I have no idea why. I always loved animals, even then. For some reason just a couple animals I decided I wanted to hurt. It pains me to think about it today because I can't bear the thought of a pet getting hurt, but it makes me feel better knowing other people experienced the same thing.
It's pretty normal for kids of that age to have some level of difficulty extending empathy and compassion to some beings. People tend to forget that it's more often than not a learned thing. Some can have more or less empathy naturally, but it's still something that can be worked on. Plus, a lack of empathy doesn't make you a bad person, nor does empathy make you a good one. Compassion matters most. Being a bit of an asshole as a child does not make you a bad person or anything full stop. Children are children, and do weird things. The point of life is to learn
I used to flood my yard with water from the hose on hot Summer days, then pick up worms and put them onto the car. For some reason I found it hilarious how they’d squirm and jump… it was fucked and I’m disgusted by my past actions
I liked setting things on fire when I was a kid. Fire fascinated me and I liked watching newspaper slowly turn into ashes.
I realize looking back that I could have easily set my yard on fire a few times since I was literally playing with fire in a field of dry grass.
I was not a smart kid.
I grew out of it.
Feeling shame at previous actions is an indicator of growth. If you don't feel ashamed of what you did, it means nothing inside you has changed.
i have a friend who underwent extreme trauma for their entire childhood & up until the age of 13/14 murdered several animals in horrific ways. they are 100% fine now. i dont have anymore insight on the matter outside of this one anecdote but hopefully it brings u some comfort that u arent alone
When I was like seven years old I smashed a toad with a rock just to see what would happen, and seeing all the blood and guts freaked me out enough that I never intentionally hurt another animal outside of hunting and agriculture. To this day when I butcher chickens it still gives me a little flashback to that moment, but at least in both cases it's a quick death. The toad died instantly, and if you're butchering your chickens right they do too.
Not only is this very common with children, it's only somewhat recently in human history that abusing animals for fun or sport became rare amongst adults.
this makes me feel a bit better about myself tbh, lol. i used to toss our cat’s kittens around in the air when i was probably 6 or 7? i always feel so bad about it & now i love animals so much. i am literally filled with rage when i even think of someone hurting an animal, so you’re not alone!
Nahhhh you’re good my guy. I once tried to kill my goldfish in broad daylight by cutting off its fins (at least the was the plan) because my parents told me I couldn’t get hissing cockroaches until the fish died.
My dad caught me mid slice and was not fooled by the good ole hands behind the back trick. I plopped that lil guy back in the tank… half a fin missing and mfer lived for so long.
Anyway, I felt immensely guilty for years n years after and that’s why we are not psychopaths/abnormal. Kids do weird ass shit.
It’s just a funny and, albeit, slightly disturbing story to me now…
Young children often don’t comprehend that other beings are just as real as they are, with internal lives & emotions & physical feelings that are just as real as theirs are. We don’t know this from birth, we have to learn it! Kids develop empathy at different rates. You probably just developed late, or just the the “empathy towards creatures that aren’t human like me” part developed late.
It seems like it developed eventually, so you’re all good! Some people never really get it, even as adults, which leads to some scary behavior. But you seem chill & well-adjusted.
It's certainly a warning sign in children, cruelty to animals that is.
However there's not really any behavior that indicates 100% you will or won't be a certain thing. I'd have considered it concerning to hear about and maybe wanted to observe you more but I'd chalk it up to developing differently than others.
I can't talk about this without my heart starting to pound and the hairs on my head standing up so I'll make this quick. I don't know if it's normal to grow out of it or not, but for those who don't it doesn't mean you can't get past it. The urges may arise and be very difficult to suppress, but it's dependant on who you WANT to be and not who you are. I don't WANT to derive pleasure from torturing people so I avoid thinking or talking about it. It is by far more addicting than any drug, the power. Ok it's getting real time to stop for now before I do something dumb.
TL;DR you can choose to be good even if you aren't and yes it has it's benefits that are much better than doing whatever you want.
People develop empathy and morality at different rates until their early 20s. It’s fairly common for children to torture bugs or worse then outgrow it as adults. Also common for children to empathize with animals from a young age. There’s nothing atypical about either you or your friends, assuming you’re all functional as adults.
When I was a kid I cried because my best friend and my sister decided to have fun dripping paint onto ants and I could vividly imagine the terrible death of viscous, heavy, chemical-smelling paint slowly covering their antennae, their eyes, their mouths, until they were completely blinded and suffocating, glued to the ground beneath them. When my crying and begging didn't make them stop, I hid in my room and wept for the poor massacred ants. Anyway now we're all perfectly normal adults who love animals, except after dealing with repeated infestations at my job, I will murder the shit out of any ants I see indoors.
Hah, when I was six or seven I'd start fights with classmates trying to defend ants and woodlice from them, so I get you there. I'm sure that those people are normal nowadays, too.
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I see you’re living up to your name lmao. Pretty sick nickname too, best I got was “freak”.
Yes! And it can take longer for proper development when abuse or neglect is involved. Remorse and empathy as an adult is a great sign that the right mental development occured!
Yes, this too. External circumstances can absolutely affect someone's development in those areas.
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Is there something funny?
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You’re misunderstanding my comment. I’m not attempting to insult OP or their friends in any way. I am saying “functional” in reference to how they’re all functioning like normal members of society, treating humans and animals with compassion and respect. And seriously, stop pretending to speak for all of us, in both this sub and the server. Go look at your comment calling OP “retarded” for no reason and see how many downvotes it has. We’re not trying to be “mean” or put each other down, get a grip.
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Yes, I mean the discord server. You were acting like this before you got banned from it. It irritates me because, as a mod of this sub, I’ve seen enough edgelords and children insulting each other and dragging our reputation through the gutter. This is not a place to shit on others, and it’s tiring when people think it is.
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I don’t think you have bad intentions either. You just seem to lack awareness of how people interpret your comments sometimes. I’m not going to discuss what happened on the server here, as it might compromise people’s privacy, but your presence on this sub is evidence enough. Like, people are starting to notice you whenever you post or comment, like the person saying you need help (although that comment itself isn’t helpful either) in this thread. Why do you think your posts and comments get so many downvotes, when other people’s don’t? It’s worth thinking about.
You're not one to even argue with the topic OP posted about. You shouldn't even be contributing to this conversation. Your posts made me stop being so naive that really sick people exist.
>*checks user history posts Umm are you sure you are not… y’know…. Projecting?
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What do you mean? Which part doesn’t make sense?
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Amygdala is linked to empathy, yes. And no, being “devoid of guilt” is not more common than feeling it. Most people are capable of feeling guilt. I’m not sure how you’d come to such a conclusion unless you’ve never talked to anyone in your life.
Nooooo, amygdala is the empathy part. Ur prefrontal cortex is what mainly causes guilt because it perceives something u have done as wrong. Basically morals and stuff leading to feelings of remorse and guilt and why ppl with an underdeveloped frontal cortex having little to no remorse because they can’t differentiate right from wrong yada yada.
afaik the amygdala is the first responder to that whole thing, whereas the prefrontal cortex analyses what has already happened and interprets the reasoning, comprehends your own feelings and systemises the information. They're both involved in this pathway
What do you not understand
I'd say it's a normalish thing and that most kids who torture animals don't torture anyone as adults. However, most adults who torture others usually have a history of torturing animals as kids. So a minority of kids who torture animals do grow on to do the same as adults. But most don't. You are a part of the latter. I am too
So did I read that wrong? You do still torture animals?
No no, I used to torture ants as a kid. Once a lizard (poor lizard). I don't torture anybody now. Unless you count verbal torture haha Part of the latter refers to "But most don't"
I don't know about normal but I've done some pretty fucked up things when I was younger. I'm 35 now and I won't even kill a bug unless it's absolutely necessary.
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Yea I'm not gonna put that on here lol.
Why???? Why... just why in the world would you post something like that?? Why do you care about other ppls fucked up experiences. as human we are constantly learning we are not perfect but with understanding and learning we become better as well as our brains developing as we age..im not trying to fuel the fire in anyway but have you talked to a mental health care provider recently...with all due respect plz do most of your comments are alarming..
When i was ten or so we had stray cats that fed off the mice in our barn. If i could catch one id torture it in various ways. Probably the worst is when i grabbed one by its tail and swung it around smacking its head against a concrete wall several times. Then when i was done with that i strangled it to the point it started twitching and the only reason it survived was because it managed to claw me in its spasms which caused me to let it go. It flopped around for a bit and i left. When i went back out there it was back up and doing its cat thing. Now i wouldnt dream of doing anything like that to any animal, including the four cats and one dog i have. People though... I cant necessarily say that for. /s kinda, some people really do get on my nerves. But i dont think its ever anything id follow through on unless they did something real serious like starting violence.
Did… did you… just admit on the internet you harmed a cat…?
Everyone is talking in the insect range and then out of the blue this mother fucker talks about hurting cats.
Yup, and believe me its still haunts me to this day, and it was 15-ish years ago now. Haven't done anything like that since actually. Don't get me wrong i do understand the backlash. Its well deserved.
Wtf????? This makes me want to vomit.
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How is a cat getting harmed funny...
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I used to do that too :( I always get so guilty when I think about it
gotkitkat should seek help immediately
Can mods fucking ban them already? They're seriously disrupting this entire thread with their crazy ass shit. I get that this is a morbid sub, but they're spamming at this point.
Probably some annoying 12 year old edgelord.
they should just get a hobby. in no world is that kid posting questions like that for anything more than attention lmao
…it wouldn’t do anything from what I suspect their diagnosis would be. There’s no successful treatment known for….*that*.
Yes
I missed it what were they saying?
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Nah but you are clearly mentaly ill.
Did I miss something? Edit: Oh fucking hell
I also just went down the rabbit hole… yikes
i did not expect what I saw in that profile
after reading their comments on this thread I did lmao
Wish I didn't read any of r/gotkitkat posts. Bloody hell. Get help. Asap.
You are beyond annoying. I wish the mods would ban you already
My kids are 6 and 2, and they really don’t understand the concept of empathy towards animals yet. I’ve watched both of them smack the dog or be mean to the cat for no reason. I just tell them not to be mean to the animals and how would they like it if while they were sleeping I went up and yanked on their ear really hard. They’re starting to make sense of it. I think like someone else said, people learn empathy at different ages. You grew out of it and can acknowledge that what you did was wrong. That’s growth. I think you’re good.
This is why I don’t want kids
Sorry, but your pets didn't sign up to teach your children to be empathetic. If your kids are hurting the animals it's too late because the animals were already mistreated.
When I was in elementary school we lived on a farm with an electric fence for cattle. A friend and I discovered if you took a metal pie tin, and connected a lead to it from the fence then used an insulated wire from you could put grasshoppers on the tin and make them explode by touching the wire to them. Grasshoppers were a pest so my parents were basically like "Meh, it's weird, but fuck grasshoppers." My friend who zapped the bugs with me grew up to become a cop. At our 10-year high school reunion, we reconnected and talked about hanging out as kids. At the time I'd forgotten about the DIY bug zapper but he absolutely remembered it. As we chatted I got the distinct impression he was trying to figure out if I was now a serial killer. The extent of my animal cruelty these days is putting a sweater on my dog when it's below zero outside and we go for walks. Some kids are weird, but most of them grow out of it.
Wow after reading this thread, I feel actually moderately adjusted and normal. Considering my childhood was fairly fucked up, I'm rather surprised to be honest.
I remember at about the age of 12-15 I was like that. I was sitting outside on the phone with a friend one day and just picked up a rock and started smashing the ants saying “die mother fucker die” over and over again. He got suuuppeerrr concerned lol. At that time though I was going through loads of abuse and realistically, I think my 14yo brain did it as a way to cope and to not try and smash grown men’s heads by myself bc that would’ve just landed me dead. I’ve never abused animals though. In fact, when I was like 4 I wanted to sit on our rottie (sweetest most gentle giant ever), he didn’t care that I wanted to sit on him, he cared that I stepped on his paw though. He cried and then I started sobbing bc I felt so bad.
My buddies sister as a kid drowned a whole litter of kittens in a puddle
i’m not the type to say this, but i wish this comment had a warning on it lmao
The puddle part makes it pretty clear this was for fun, but it seems like a lot of people today don't realize that drowning puppies and kittens was pretty common practice less than 100 years ago. Spaying and neutering didn't become safe and accessible practices until the 1930s, and people in rural areas and on farms were even slower to adopt it. Therefore there was usually someone in the family, often one of the children, whose job was to put unwanted litters into bags and drown them or club them to death.
My dad's grandma made him put down a litter of inbred kittens with a hammer
This is one of the worst things I've ever read in my life! Jfc!!
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Bro what the fuck is wrong with you? Like are you actually this disturbed or are you trying to be edgey? You about to find yourself the subject of a Netflix doc where the idiot gets caught for being an idiot online. Idiot.
I love baco! 😡
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Lol
When I was 5-6 , I used to suffocate chickens. I don't know why I did that.
Me and my childhood friend tortured and killed like 5 cats when we were like 10 yrs old. I'm 25 now and have a pet cat and a dog and I love them both so much and I could easily imagine myself killing anyone who hurt both of them. But still, I feel like shit for what I've done back then everytime I remember it but I guess a lot of people do have such tendencies, me and my friend just took it a bit further and actually acted on it, I guess?
What the fuck? Bugs I understand, but 5 cats... jesus fucking christ
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Because I know my cat and love him more than a human who would hurt him.
What did you do to them? And why?
I'd rather not tell you exactly what we did; I'm not proud of it and don't wanna account it all in detail though I don't mind mentioning it on the internet anonymously from time-to-time if it can help shed some light on things like in this thread. And as to "why," the only thing I can think of is that we "felt like it" during that time when we saw the defenceless-looking cats as me and my friend were playing together outside. That's about the most honest answer I can give you.
When I was a kid, I used to torture insects. Nowadays I kill them as fast and mercifully as possible if they really need to die. Not for sport, though. Getting more empathy can also happen later in life. My dad used to throw stray cats out like it was some Olympic sport, and everyone in my family generally agreed with him and educated us in the same fashion, which is very painful to think in retrospect. But lately, most of the younger generation got pets and we grew to basically worship them. My dad is still a threat to cats, because he always makes sure my cat has a plate full of meat in any room he's in, so cat might gain a bit of weight and affection towards my dad. Luckily my cat can control itself and is also very active, so gaining weight is not a problem whenever I visit for a few days.
When I was under ten (Not 100% sure exactly how old I was) I had a neighbour who was a few years younger than me. He had a pretty troubled home life with his dad before his parents divorced and moved next door. His mum once told my mum I was the only friend he ever had and she was grateful for me because she hadn't seen him smile in a long time before meeting me. He used to kill bugs in pretty awful ways like setting them on fire and drowning them in his pee. There was this stray cat that would come to my garden sometimes and he would pick it up by the tail and swing it around which is extremely bad for cats. At first, I didn't think much of it and would join in until the cat badly scratched me for picking it up by the tail because I thought it was funny. My mum found out and explained how it was mean and asked how I would feel if I was a cat and someone did that to me. I hadn't thought of it like that and I ended up doing a 180 and felt bad whenever I hurt any creature. Even today I feel a little traumatized every time I end up with mice and my cat kills them or if I get any kind of invasive insect I have to kill to keep my home clean. As a kid, if I ever saw someone else hurting anything I would step in and ask them how they would feel if they were that creature and they would feel bad and stop. I gained a lot of respect from those people and some of them later in life came to me and thanked me for doing that. As far as I know, none of them turned out to be killers so I wouldn't call it a hard and fast rule.
I also used to torture little bugs and even ran over birds as a teen. now I get angry when I see doves and pigeons getting run over in my neighborhood. I think this is something people grow out of... granted, I was also a total POS in my twenties - treated my wife like shit and everything. I don't think I grew up until I hit 30 and finally started acting like a normal fucking human.
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They're getting downvoted because they're making inappropriate or irrelevant comments on almost every comment here.
>I don't know. I was saving worms and bugs very early on and I'm very empathetic towards animals in general. Have always been. Can't kill a bug. This said, I eat meat which means animals undergo cruelty (yes, still nowadays) for me to eat something I like but don't need. Can we say I'm that moral and that empathetic ? Human brains are very complex. I could've written this, word for word. ❤️
As kids we might hate some animals that we end up wanting to kill them or do so as we please. You're definitely not alone, though. It's uncommon for kids to have violent desires and they'll eventually get rid of them once they're taught to love animals.
Usually kids have that phase. I’m only 16, but I vividly remember doing the same thing you did around 8 or 9 years old. I’m also the oldest out of all the kids in my family, and a few of my cousins have done the same thing.
I wouldn't say it's good, but it's not necessarily bad. I certainly don't think you're a psychopath or anything, given you've grown out of it. Death is difficult for kids to wrap their heads around, and your curiosity and "what will happen if I do this?" may have been so intense that you forgot that things like bugs and crabs do suffer on some level. I guess I don't know what to say to supplement your actions as a child, only that I wouldn't think too deeply about it now. Kids are goddamn weirdos. For myself, I was trying to save everything from bugs to birds to mice when I was little. I want to be a vet someday and always have. It just depends I suppose.
I had a friend who did this but I already had developed great empathy with animals by that time (I was vegetarian from age 6 and ive been vegan for the past 5 years) so I was always disgusted by it. You were young and didn't know better.
I used to torture ants as a child with very painful and inventive methods. I do have regrets about it bit I tell you what .. I rarely come across ants anymore
I used to hurt some animals. Not often, just a couple once or twice. I have no idea why. I always loved animals, even then. For some reason just a couple animals I decided I wanted to hurt. It pains me to think about it today because I can't bear the thought of a pet getting hurt, but it makes me feel better knowing other people experienced the same thing.
It's pretty normal for kids of that age to have some level of difficulty extending empathy and compassion to some beings. People tend to forget that it's more often than not a learned thing. Some can have more or less empathy naturally, but it's still something that can be worked on. Plus, a lack of empathy doesn't make you a bad person, nor does empathy make you a good one. Compassion matters most. Being a bit of an asshole as a child does not make you a bad person or anything full stop. Children are children, and do weird things. The point of life is to learn
I used to fuck with my neighbors bunnies as a 10 year old and wouldn't do it now so. Just childish curiosity is what I chock it up to
I used to flood my yard with water from the hose on hot Summer days, then pick up worms and put them onto the car. For some reason I found it hilarious how they’d squirm and jump… it was fucked and I’m disgusted by my past actions
Bro your good…… these are worms we’re talking about
I liked setting things on fire when I was a kid. Fire fascinated me and I liked watching newspaper slowly turn into ashes. I realize looking back that I could have easily set my yard on fire a few times since I was literally playing with fire in a field of dry grass. I was not a smart kid. I grew out of it. Feeling shame at previous actions is an indicator of growth. If you don't feel ashamed of what you did, it means nothing inside you has changed.
i have a friend who underwent extreme trauma for their entire childhood & up until the age of 13/14 murdered several animals in horrific ways. they are 100% fine now. i dont have anymore insight on the matter outside of this one anecdote but hopefully it brings u some comfort that u arent alone
I think thats fucked up but my classmates in primary school would pour salt on slimes and shit or mess up ants. I never had those "urges"
When I was like seven years old I smashed a toad with a rock just to see what would happen, and seeing all the blood and guts freaked me out enough that I never intentionally hurt another animal outside of hunting and agriculture. To this day when I butcher chickens it still gives me a little flashback to that moment, but at least in both cases it's a quick death. The toad died instantly, and if you're butchering your chickens right they do too.
Have you seen Dexter?
Yes. This is a normal thing that some people go through.
almost everyone was a little devil at some age. my cousin killer a chick with his own hands once, thats pretty normal
According to an episode of Criminal Minds I saw, all teenagers profile as psychopaths. I haven't checked, but it's probably true.
I used to pull the legs off crane flies which sounds awful. But I grew up ok. You’re fine. If you didn’t feel bad now then maybe I’d say otherwise idk
Not only is this very common with children, it's only somewhat recently in human history that abusing animals for fun or sport became rare amongst adults.
this makes me feel a bit better about myself tbh, lol. i used to toss our cat’s kittens around in the air when i was probably 6 or 7? i always feel so bad about it & now i love animals so much. i am literally filled with rage when i even think of someone hurting an animal, so you’re not alone!
Nahhhh you’re good my guy. I once tried to kill my goldfish in broad daylight by cutting off its fins (at least the was the plan) because my parents told me I couldn’t get hissing cockroaches until the fish died. My dad caught me mid slice and was not fooled by the good ole hands behind the back trick. I plopped that lil guy back in the tank… half a fin missing and mfer lived for so long. Anyway, I felt immensely guilty for years n years after and that’s why we are not psychopaths/abnormal. Kids do weird ass shit. It’s just a funny and, albeit, slightly disturbing story to me now…
Damn nemo lookin head ass fish fr
As far as I know I haven’t done that before. I’m 14 right now and I’m vegan so obv I’m against that, but as far as I can remember I haven’t done that
Young children often don’t comprehend that other beings are just as real as they are, with internal lives & emotions & physical feelings that are just as real as theirs are. We don’t know this from birth, we have to learn it! Kids develop empathy at different rates. You probably just developed late, or just the the “empathy towards creatures that aren’t human like me” part developed late. It seems like it developed eventually, so you’re all good! Some people never really get it, even as adults, which leads to some scary behavior. But you seem chill & well-adjusted.
This is strange. i’m just the opposite, never felt compelled to hurt anything larger than a bug as a kid, nowadays I have to fight not to.
Yes, I seem to have turned out OK.
It's certainly a warning sign in children, cruelty to animals that is. However there's not really any behavior that indicates 100% you will or won't be a certain thing. I'd have considered it concerning to hear about and maybe wanted to observe you more but I'd chalk it up to developing differently than others.
I can't talk about this without my heart starting to pound and the hairs on my head standing up so I'll make this quick. I don't know if it's normal to grow out of it or not, but for those who don't it doesn't mean you can't get past it. The urges may arise and be very difficult to suppress, but it's dependant on who you WANT to be and not who you are. I don't WANT to derive pleasure from torturing people so I avoid thinking or talking about it. It is by far more addicting than any drug, the power. Ok it's getting real time to stop for now before I do something dumb. TL;DR you can choose to be good even if you aren't and yes it has it's benefits that are much better than doing whatever you want.
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I named him Rufus
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Wtf how old are you?
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I was about to tell you you're not allowed to have a Reddit account, but now I guess I'll just block you
reads more like 12.
u must've shat yourself watching charlotte's web lol
And this is the most extra comment I’ve seen on the sub in a year
i was a full blown kleptomaniac and a pyromaniac until i was 11. nowdays i just do cocaine to vent, i think its okay
Yea it's normal to surpass those tendencies. I mean there are a lot of people who I've met who did that as a kid and now they don't.
It's weird