I was at Petco one day watching the mice frolic in their case. There was a woman standing next to me and I said “aren’t they cute”. She agreed and then I said “can you understand how people can buy them to feed their snakes?” There was a muffled response from her and later I saw her getting a mouse while trying to hide it from me. Sick b*tch!
I suppose that you could say the same thing about people who have "outdoor cats."
After all, cats who spend time outdoors do what cats do... They kill other animals. Because they're predators. We don't always think of them like that, but that's a simple fact of life.
While I have no interest in having a snake as a "pet," I do find them to be fascinating creatures, and when I was young, I actually thought of becoming a herpatologist. I've also got a number of friends who do have snakes for pets, and they're not sick individuals. And they don't particularly enjoy watching their snakes eat, any more than a cat owner enjoys watching their cat eat a bird or mouse. But they do realize that they need to feed them, and many snakes will not eat dead animals, so the often do have to be fed live prey.
Mark