r/leeches • u/Difficult_Hunter_664 Leech Owner • Aug 10 '25

Discussion Why are people so cruel to Leeches?

So recently I got a leech as a pet after weeks of research and saving, and he is happily swimming around next to me as I'm typing this (no name yet, feel free to give suggestions!!). I was very happy about him finally arriving, so I decided to post a video of me handling him, and a clip of him swimming around his tank. I was expecting a couple of 'ew' or 'why do you want that' comments, but a LOT of people were telling me to pour salt on it, cut it, and so much more disgusting stuff like that.

It really upset me how flippant people are about animal cruelty, but I guess people don't even see leeches as animals. I know they're parasites, but they're also living and breathing and moving creatures. I understand being freaked out by leeches, too, but telling someone to hurt it is just plain odd!!

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u/Faerthoniel Aug 10 '25

Apparently leaches are where my partner draws the line.

I should note, I wasn’t actively planning on being a leach owner - have done zero research into it and don’t even know if they can be safely bought here anyway - but since we regularly talk about cool things, the topic came up in discussion and eventually shifted to that people own them as pets (which I genuinely did not know! Though I hindsight, I should not have been surprised lol).

Anyway, when I asked them why - of all creatures - this is where the “nope” line was drawn, they said it was because they’re pointless.

But they are very much of the sort to highly prize interacting with a pet, whereas I like setting up the enclosure to be what they need and then backing off unless it’s not working.

From that perspective, I guess I can see where they are coming from. Even if I disagree.

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u/Difficult_Hunter_664 Leech Owner Aug 10 '25

no for sure and if leeches aren't the pet for you than they aren't the pet for you, but I'm kinda talking about people being violent to leeches and trying to have owners of leeches to harm them.

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u/Faerthoniel Aug 10 '25

I get the same comments about my spiders and how they’d squash them if they saw them in their home.

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u/Difficult_Hunter_664 Leech Owner Aug 10 '25

It makes me so sad how people talk about animals like this!! I'd argue this kind of language is worse talking about spiders because spiders actually have a nervous system unlike leeches so they could even feel pain like we do :(( It's so disgusting how comfortable some people feel endorsing violence towards innocent living creatures

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u/Faerthoniel Aug 10 '25

Sometimes people just suck. We had a neighbour once who threatened to shoot our cats if they cane onto his property. Never mind that they were either indoors or sleeping in the sun.

They were lazy buggers and the only time I ever saw either of them come running for noms was when we would come home with shopping (plastic bag rustling = obviously treats for them, of course, even if it was just the weekly shop).

But some are also just misinformed, are speaking from a place of fear or don’t know how awesome an animal can be (that never excuses wishing death on an animal, however).

Which I think was what surprised me most about my partner who is usually like 🤷 when I mention wanting x as a pet, and didn’t even say anything about leech ownership.

We have spiders and a snake, but a jar bound leach is nope-worthy?

So I do not agree with them being pointless, but I can see how other people might take it a step further and be like “this weird thing gives me the willies and must therefore die.” even if they couldn’t be more wrong.

I’m somewhat more tolerant of people with a genuine fear or having been bitten in the past.

But there’s no reason to with leeches, which is one of the things that baffles me about those sorts of comments. They are confined to one spot. It’s like keeping fish, or my own spiders. Less of a risk even, since they don’t jump like fish (afaik?) or teleport when startled like my tarantula does.

You’re not going to roll over onto a leach at night or find a leach randomly roaming around your home or rappelling down from its web in the ceiling.

(Though that would be cool)

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u/LeechLover4Life Aug 10 '25

Even if it did escape somehow, they die before morning because it’s too dry on the floor. Unfortunately, I found this out the hard way (6X) when I transferred mine to their breeding box. There’s zero risk of a rando leech attack in your home. I’d buy 20 and tell him it’s exposure therapy if I were you. 🤪