Welcome to Gaia! ::

Were you crying over the geckos because they eat crickets or because you felt that the geckos themselves are being abused?

Why would you feel like a waste of a person for being a caring individual? I know it's difficult to be compassionate. I cry for dead and abused animals all the time. Just opening the refrigerator at my house can be a horrifying event in my life because my family consumes vast quantities of cheese, eggs, and meat; I don't always cry, but it makes me feel bad, then I get angry. How can people do such horrible things and not realize it or care once they know? It makes me furious that people would be allowed to cause such suffering in the world "because it tastes good."

It's not necessary, yet they revel in the suffering they cause. It makes me think they're sick; they know what happens, they think it's horrible what those animals go through, but they push it to the back of their minds as they shove the food down their throats. How can they still eat meat once they have seen what happens and disagree with it? Do they truly understand? If they understand and still do it, I think they must be sociopaths.

I think because you truly understand their suffering, it upsets you.

I keep pet leopard geckos and I can assure you if you let them go they wont last too long outside the controlled environment your family provides for them.

I know it may be hard for you to see them eating insects, but keep in mind that they have to do so in order to survive. They will not eat anything that's not living. Also, keep in mind in the wild, they'd be eating spiders, small mice and anything else they can fit into their mouths. They hunt by instinct and don't have the higher rational brain functions that seperates Humans from other animals.

If it bothers you, perhaps get a pet you can relate to more? A turtle is a herbavoir and certain types of lizards are as well. I hope you find a way to cope with this.

As a fellow leopard gecko keeper, I totally agree with you. It would be more inhumane to let the geckos go, and keep in mind that the geckos were most likely born in captivity. It's what they grew up with.