snakes can digest their own hearts!!!

while I don't agree with this guys methods his findings are quite interesting.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/s...07/2011956.htm

Very interesting thanks for posting.

Actually so do you. During extreme starvation your body will use up all of it's fat reserves for energy first and then when those are gone start on your muscles and internal organs. I believe that people who have starved to death die of organ failure.

wow I didn't know that.

wow like we really needed to know that and it was REALLY worth putting a whole bunch of snakes in a freeking blender and making python smoothies for that glorious oh so astonishing fact that any starving animal would begin to digest stored fats. wow i coulda told you that from looking at your starving snake THANKS ALOT mr scientist.
yeah thats what id say to him.
ohhhmyfreeekinggod im so pissed right now i hope animal activist are all up this scientists butthole right about now!!!!!!!!

I understand that some are mad because snakes make you feel all fuzzy inside, but it's not like he was cruel to them. Everyone knows that snakes can live for over a year without food, and some have actually had snakes refuse food on their own for that long. 168 days is only half a year, so I don't really see that as being cruel since their body structure is made to function with a lack of food. As far as the blender goes, they were euthanized first, so still no cruelty there either. If his studies do end up playing a part in helping humans survive longer periods of time without dying from hunger, I'd say those snakes died for a good purpose.

I too dont like how he did this experiment. He starved over 60 animals, kills them and then puts them in a blender. He didnt need to do this to that many animals. It would make more sence to do tests on snakes that are not eating on thier own.

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Originally Posted by Kryptonian

I too dont like how he did this experiment. He starved over 60 animals, kills them and then puts them in a blender. He didnt need to do this to that many animals. It would make more sence to do tests on snakes that are not eating on thier own.

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Most researchers would consider a sample group of 60 to be too small. It also seems to me that if the animals are choosing not to eat, that could affect the results of an experiment looking to see what kind of effects a lack of prey would have on a normally eating snake.

This would certainly be considered unconscionable cruelty if it were conducted on any mammalian species.
I'm not entirely sure I appreciate the 'ends justify the means' mentality in this experiment. I'm all for science, but starving, beating, delivering electrical shocks to, depriving of water, isolating, drowning, and various other cruel behavioral and metabolic experiments are pretty hard for any ethical person to justify.
This experiment involved torture. It may be a torture that some snakes would be subjected to in the wild, but that is really not the point, is it?

When a ball python fasts for half the year, this is natural--when it is deprived of food for half the year at a time when it would choose to eat, by the deliberate actions of a person...this is animal cruelty.

Suprise surprise, they do extensive tests like this on mammals. (i.e. rats, cats, dogs, mice, monkeys, rabbits....)