However, the hfact that Japanses kids use them as fighting pets or so I have read is cruel, especially in lage #s.

We don't actually know that. They might have limited sentience. Actually philosophers of the mind will point out we don't even know if ANY animal is sentient. But they almost certainly are. .

I watched a couple of these things ,and man, its quite clearly some of ol' hornet's victims are pretty distressed (Ie the scorpion trying to get the hell out of there)

Where I live, small dogs get dognapped off the streets. Some are for resale as they are sought after breeds, some for ransom back to the owner and some (could be urban myth I know) as an entree for dogfights out in the sticks. Basically throw a cute fluffy poodle in with a pitbull as a sort of 'pre-match' entertainment for laughs.

My question to the people who like the bugs fighting is; would you watch and enjoy this sort of thing?

Please point out which clips show these things happening.

All I saw was the same kind of bug death you see on Discovery Channel or National Geographic, but without the so-called "educational" commentary. So please tell me why one kind of bug death is OK while the other isn't. They are both shown for entertainment purposes.

Also, it's interesting that some people are against Japanese Bug Fight, but OK with the wholesale slaughter of termites and cockroaches because IT ISN'T BEING FILMED and shown on a website. Way to stick your heads in the sand!! #45 TheMadLeper is right on the money. People like to ignore the big picture while fetishing over the little details.

How about we all give a flying fuck about our fellow humans instead of some stupid bugs? Go to Darfur for a few weeks and then let me know how you feel about a centipede and a wasp duking it out in Japan.

Or, just sit in your silk robe drinking imported tea sprayed with pesticides with honey made from enslaved bees and bitch about some stupid shit on the internet...

Remember - in Japan - it's not "slaughter" it's "scientific research".

There is a huge difference between killing a cockroach and capturing a cockroach and pulling all its legs off and then slowly squishing it until it succumbs to death. Then posting this wonderful footage on Youtube.

If you lack this basic moral compass then your parents sucked.

I'm really disappointed not only by Neatorama supporting this perverse activity, but also the support of many for it.

leave BUG FIGHTS FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN

A factory is built. Killing millions of insects and animals. That factory gets parts from hundreds of other factories who kill the same amount if not more animals. Then the factory destroys the area around it, ruining the homes of whatever insects and animals managed to survive for miles around.

SO...

If you think this is evil and disgusting, you are a hypocrite and even more disgusting then people who support this site. At least they don't LIE about who they are.

This is awesome, where else are you going to see such a thing?

And if anyone is going to play the cruelty card, thats sad. So very sad. Its instinctive for these bugs to try and run away, they dont want to be in a cage but i mean really, since when did people with peace rule the world?

I like the idea of various bugs fighting and i can watch. As do, apparently, hundreds of other people, why should we be voided of our fun because you forgot your an alpha species?

To put it lightly, your "teddy bears and candy bars" entertainment gives me a limp penis, and I am offended by that. Fight On my tiny friends.

Sorry, if I have offended anyone. I just dont think this is hurting anyone, in fact its rather peaceful as everyone in the world can enjoy this.

but, for the endangered part... yeah thats the only thing buggin me. japanese are notorious for hunting/killing endangered speices with out giving a damn. like the yearly dolphin massacre.

some of the fights also were unfair... i mean a jerusalem beatle going against a prayingmantis? thats just not fair at all. should have been a jerusalem beatle against a camel spider. NOW that would be an even match.
and since both those bugs qualify as pests it would be no problem then wouldnt it?

I felt sad for the lil buggers that were about to go but, hey its life, better be killed by a fellow insect than by some grubby kid plucking each limb off slowly. they got the warriors death lawlz

OMGz Terminix = BUG MURDERERS!!!111!!!
Black Flag = The New Charles Manson!!!

It's pretty easy to anthropomorphize bugs when they're not destroying your property, I guess. And I'm assuming you think it's OK for your favorite restaurant to stop spraying for cockroaches and maggots because they are just struggling to live like the rest of us sentient beings? (They should just catch them one by one and send them to that "farm" in the "country" where your childhood pets live!) One nice big juicy roach in your soup and you'll be tap dancing to a different tune.... Somehow I can't picture you fishing it out and naming it.

Again, I don't see any huge distinction here between someone enjoying the entertainment value of bugs dying on Japanese Bug Fight vs. the entertainment value of bugs dying on Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Please, put your moth-infested thinking cap on and come up with an explanation that doesn't involve giving insects human characteristics that they don't possess...

Like us they want to live and strive to live.

And I'm a vegetarian who rescues bugs so I get to say that, okay? (Not that other people don't, in my book. It's just that some here have said that if you eat meat you can't object to the cruelty...)

but after seeing some of them desperately trying to crawl up the glass half dead, the cruelty does set in,
there should be a tap-out

It’s a good thing that bugs aren’t sentient then right?"

Actually, bugs are indeed sentient. Note the definition of sentient: Sentience refers to utilization of sensory organs or organelles, the ability to feel or perceive subjectively, not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness.

If a bug is able to perceive pain and threat to its life enough to attempt to flee and/or fight to protect it's life then I'd consider that sentient.

Killing should never be done for entertainment. It is a fact of life and in some cases a necessity (eek a spider in my shoe!) it should never be done to obtain perverse pleasure from it.

MURDERER haw haw haw

This is not nature as some people have tried to claim. In the wild animals will usually flee rather than face a fight. Animals fighting for entertainment purposes is wrong. However, it would seem to some people that this only counts when the animals are furry (or even feathered!).

Alex - it is your prerogative to ultimately decide what gets put on Neatorama. By all means let it stay if you feel that this post has merit. You know how I feel on the subject.

There had been many posts on the blog that are distinctly "not neat" (The first one was the Elephant Hanging that also set off a storm of controversy in the comment).

I'll reiterate my support for having this post stay on Neatorama.