Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Thump Day

Shhh, Tyler is cleaning Sydney's ears!

There is a house just down the block on the other side of the street. It's a two story with a red door. Posted on the front, next to the red door, is a 1 by 4 foot sign that reads "Torture is Wrong". The woman who lives there is very enthusiastic about organic farming and cow shares: eat local, know your source, grow everything you can; that sort of thing. And I quite approve. She is even putting large planter boxes in her front yard with herbs in them for neighborhood use. It all seems very well and good. On the other hand she is raising rabbits for food. She has children and she has convinced them if they eat the rabbits they can let the rabbits have more babies and there will always be a supply of baby rabbits to play with and they won't have to put up with the infirmities of an older rabbit. (What will they do with her when she gets old and infirm?) Apparently, at one time she did have pet rabbit that required many trips to the vet as it got older. Emotionally, of course, I am horrified. Intellectually, I understand. People will eat meat. I eat meat. We try  to make sure that our meat is a clean source with humane treatment of the animal from birth to death. I wish I didn't eat meat, but to maintain any sort of energy level, it seems I must. I don't eat a lot, just enough. For goodness sake, the Dalai Lama eats meat, but probably not rabbit. Here's an interesting take on meat: When the Christian Missionaries were trying to convert the Tibetans they insisted that fish be eaten on Fridays, but, having done the math,  the Tibetans balked. If each living creature is a sentient being and a cow can feed 350 people and a fish only one, wouldn't it be better to eat the animal whose death provides the most food? I know there can be other math involved with meat like carbon foot print,  but the Tibetans weren't concerned about that. Back to the woman who lives in the house with the red door, there isn't anything that can be done, but we give her the maximum 5 THUMPS for her dietary habits. Just to be safe, I'll be keeping Tyler and Sydney away from that side of the street. They'd much rather break into the study than go outside anyway. 
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

The Spots suggest you give your rabbits extra treats today.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you, however a part of me wants to go there and save all her bunnies - :(

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Ah, yes, well the part I left out was a scenario My son and I devised involving doors being kicked in, rabbits rescued by force and fire bombings; unlikely, but action packed!!!!!

Fez and the Gang said...

Mom has been giving us extra treats lately anyway... unfortunately they come with extra snuggling! Yuck.

Crafty Green Poet said...

oh I know the dilemma, I am intellectually happy with people eating rabbits, but part of me hates the thought. i was once introduced to a family's rabbits as though they were pets, then found one on my plate for supper, that was the hardest thing....

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

My grandfather had a farm and my father and his siblings had to help out. At one point Grandpa tried raising rabbits. Big mistake when the kids got attached. After that fiasco, Grandpa decided chickens, sheep and goats were enough.

I'm more okay with wild rabbits as food than domestic ones, since it's a more level playing field.

I love the picture of Sydney and Tyler. It looks like they're sharing secrets!

d. moll, l.ac. said...

CGP- Good heavens, what did you do?
BG-good point about wild rabbits.
Re; grandpa ; My brother claims to be still traumatized by the finding of "Gus" the goose on his dinner plate as a child.

RG said...

What did that Raleigh N.C. Bunny man say? Mam, I'ld sooner fry up your children!

Anonymous said...

I understand that people need meat.. I, too, eat meat but just the bare minimum like you do. What I find hard to understand is how your neighbour can kill and cook the rabbits after watching them grow up in front of her. I guess people do that on farms, too.. but I just can't do that, not just to rabbits but to all other animals.

In seafood restaurants here, there will be tanks filled with fishes, crabs, etc. They're all alive and patrons get to select which one they want to eat. The selected fish, etc. will then be removed from the tank, killed and cooked. I can't do that either.. selecting something to be killed..

YowlYY said...

I think I may have to write about my vegetarianism on my blog, just to say why I do it and such.
I certainly would never eat bunny, no matter how well cared they're for. I can't bear the thought of a 6-10 months bunny that get whacked on the neck to end up as Sunday roast, or cooked with capers and white wine. No no no...consider your neighbour lady thumped big time from Miss Eve, Neville and myself too. Yup, I can thump too :)

PS: Tyler and Sydney look so cute in the picture... are they plotting some bun distruction?

Anonymous said...

11 thumps from our 11 bunnies to that woman!

I will steal the bunnies at nite. I rather feel guilty of stealing the bunnies instead of feeling sad to know the rabbits end up being in th cooking pot

Thump! from Daddy
Thump! from Dinky
Thump! from Mocha
Thump! from Mickybell
Thump! from Alfie
Thump! from Achilles
Thump! from Lara
Thump! from Lolly
Thump! from Luna
Thump! from Maxie
Thump! from Shiro

PJ said...

We, Mum, Ranger Dog, Digit and Sweet William Grey thump/mew/bark/harrumph in total agreement. Eating bunnehs is bad.

ilex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ilex said...

I've heard the Buddhist math on meat before, and I love the perfect logic of it. I also love Thomas Jefferson's view of meat- he thought that meat should be treated as a condiment, and vegetables should be at the center of the plate. Would that the developed world ate meat that way.

Connie said...

Love the Tibetan math. I'll be sure to cut up an apple for the bunns today.

I think it would be aweflly hard to raise rabbits for meat. Though the whole thing of our producing our own food....

Um, well we have chickens.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Ilex-Yes, meat as condiment, that was what our Chinese Dietetics teachers said too (he was Chinese, just teaching it....)
Verde- issue of producing own food is tricky....guess I want to keep some farmers in the loop....

Anonymous said...

well i like the action packed raid on the house idea - very fun!!

the getting attached reminds me of the passover lamb, originally the passover was to cover the sins of the family so the angel of death did not slay the firstborn. the lamb was brought into the family for some number of days and was part of the family before it was slain for their sins. to me it's a powerful picture of what our sin has done, we get so attached to the animal but then it dies for us.

if sin hadn't entered the world none of us would be eating meat.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Mum-an interesting view of meat. I hadn't known about the Passover lamb and am fascinated. Some Daoists way that if you care well for an animal it will take on some of your Karma and cleanse it. The Spots insist that with each treat they are eating my bad Karma and turning it into garden friendly poops....

Anonymous said...

ooooh that's pretty cool too d, now excuse me while i find some extra yummy treats for ms fidget ;-)

RG said...

It just struck me that the ear cleaning is turn-a-bout for the banner photo action!

Unknown said...

Aw...D, I eat meat too but very minimum and cook mainly for the kids, thinking they need it more than me..I've got excess *wink*. Here rabbit is eaten commonly but i will never eat them since we've had rabbits before, and even before having buns..we never eat them. We do take fish daily without fail..but keep to beef once or twice a week, not more.

RoadBunner said...

I love that photo of The Spots. So sweet :)

I will probably draw some criticism here, but I don't have a problem with people eating rabbits. I eat meat and I don't think it is right for someone like myself to say a rabbit has more right to live than a cow or pig.

I raised a chick in biology class in high school. At the end of our time together we had to give them all back to be taken to a farm (a classmate's uncle's farm so they had a nice free-range life, but even then were slated to be dinner one day). I decided I didn't mind if someone ate him so long as they ATE him. I would have hated for him to be cooked up and then thrown away and wasted. So now whenever I eat meat I always try to not waste or throw any of it away.

Annette Tait said...

that is shocking to know!
surely there must be some recourse against 'culling' and the handling of that 'side of the business' - what about licences and hygiene and goverment agencies to inspect the 'premises' at 'that time'.
I can't believe some people! surely she must enjoy a certain level of barbarity to do this.
Humans certainly are NOT a sentient, developed species!

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