Letters to the Editor: Killing and mummifying snakes is an odd way to save the planet

To the editor: I must admit your Associated Press article, “University of Michigan slithers toward history with massive acquisition of snakes,” made my skin crawl.

But it wasn’t the scaly reptilian creatures that brought on my nightmares. Rather, it was the nonchalance with which the article mentioned “boxes containing water snakes, garter snakes, woodland salamanders, dusky salamanders and other species,” and, “They were euthanized and ultimately placed in a solution that is 75% ethanol.”

Another neck-hair-raising tidbit: “A number of the newly acquired jars contain both snakes and litters of their newborns.”

All of this leads me to ask: What is wrong with people?

Joseph John Racano, Los Osos, Calif.

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To the editor: The article reports that many of the tens of thousands of amphibians and reptiles were “euthanized” before being preserved in ethanol. “Euthanized” implies a death delivered in a humane manner in order to limit suffering.

The donors of this massive collection of horror did not euthanize tens of thousands of animals. The animals were collected, slaughtered and then mummified.

This was done in the spirit of establishing an “early warning” system for climate change. Well, here’s the early warning: You just mass murdered creatures that are smaller and less vicious than you. I’d say the early warning is that humans, especially those who kill animals, make the planet an ugly and dangerous place.

Humanity is full of snakes.

Ivan Borodin, Hollywood