do u have the email address for the newspaper? and i only read the first paragraph and sorry but i cant go any further, i will certainly right a letter of complaint as im sure everyone else who reads this post will be willing to do. Its things like that remind me why i hate people so much.

I can’t read the article…but do you think you could shoot me a quick email of sort of what it’s about so I can write the paper? lesleyc @ ualberta.ca

Thanks!!

I sent a babbling email to the paper but took some more time and thought with one to Toronto’s SPCA:

You may have already have received emails about this article, but I wanted to also add my voice to it. The July 23rd article of “Incredible Edibles” by the Toronto Star was nothing short of a shock factor at the expense of the readers and the rabbits.

The rabbit being held by the author, Kim Honey, does not appear to be a wild breed. Despite it being raised as a meat rabbit, it was still a domesticated breed. Their way of dispatching it for cooking required multiple blows to it is not a ‘humane’ way of dealing with it. In addition, there was no mention about how this should be done by someone with experience nor that they should only use animals that are meant as food. She mentions that Toronto is “…overrun with cottontail rabbits,” but does not say that they should not be used as a food source. Who knows what diseases they may have that could be harmful for human consumption. This is a complete lack of moral sensibility on the author’s and the paper’s part.

If there is any way to take action against them for this, I would be more than willing to help.

Sincerely,

….

Wow, I am so totally surprised about this article.

I remember there was an article in the Wall Street Journal last year about rabbit meat for dogs and I wrote the author – I did not feel he was sensitive to his subject at all and I don’t think this one is either. Markus I agree that is not a wild rabbit and there is alot of information left out to give readers the correct information.

Nice wording Markus!

I was totally disgusted by it, I can just see some people trying out their ‘humane’ method just to see what happens. I agree that it was done just for shock value.

Markus could you please show the details for the SPCA.
I have emailed the paper basically stating that i demand they include a new article which states that people cannot just cruelly kill there domesticated animals and that i have been in touch with the SPCA and i hope that Kim gets prosecuted for her actions.

I haven’t read the article, and I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to, but it reminded me of something that happened in Winnipeg almost a decade ago. Again if you’re squeamish you probably don’t want to read it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/09/10/10091999_art.html

I didn’t even own a bunny then and I thought it was disgusting and sick.
– Annette

OMG! You know, I hate people. Seriously. That’s why I have so many animals. They never do sick and demented stuff like this.

Not too long ago I saw a petition going around to stop some Costa Rican guy from re-creating an “art exhibit” where he made a sign out of dog food, then tethered a dog under it. The dog was ignored, not fed or given water or anything, until it died. And galleries ASKED him to come and do it again. I really wanted to hurt that man.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977328615

thanks markus i have emailed them too now, hopefully we should get a reply, keep us posted if anyone hears anything!

The thing that you have to remember, no matter how awful it is to you, is that it wasn’t a pet that was killed.  They went to a farm that raises rabbits as meat livestock.  The place is no different than a farm that raises cows to become hamburgers.  What IS different is that the dispatching of the rabbit was handled by an inexperienced individual and it took multiple attempts to do it.  THIS is what constitutes inhumane treatment.  If the rabbit was finished off in one, quick, clean blow – there would not have been any trouble.  The other thing is that the way she writes her article, it can easily be misinterpreted as “There’s lots o’ rabbits around Toronto – so feel free to catch and eat them.”

Until rabbits are removed from the ‘livestock’ listing and put into the ‘pet’ listing by Dept of Fish and Wildlife (I think that’s the Dept), you will always be able to raise rabbits to eat.  The only ways to stop them is if said conditions where they’re being raised/held are considered cruel or inhumane.

I wrote directly to Kim Honey: Here’s what I wrote

Unfortunately you are getting a lot of angry feedback about the article you wrote “Incredible Edibles”

Let me tell you where you went wrong (In my opinion):

You described killing it in graphic detail in a newspaper-this is generally not where people expect to come across this sort of thing and are mentally unprepared. The terms and details you used were extremely graphic and blunt and would be upsetting to all but hardened hunters and the like.

You described killing a pet-The reason people call it beef and not cow is people don’t want to associate food with the animal they are eating. This is a cultural thing and as a journalist I’m sure you know that. Killing a rabbit that was raised for meat, while unappealing to most, would certainly have been more suitable for this article. Combining that with pictures of you cuddling the rabbit and talking about calming it gives it a bit of ‘Hannibal Lecter’ feeling-very creepy indeed.

You described the killing taking four blows-this is by any measure inhumane. Animal Welfare defines humane killing as ‘one blow’ to kill in over ninety percent of cases. Four blows is inhumane by any measure. I don’t think if a person sustained four stab wounds or four blows to the head, would be described to family members as dying painlessly. You shouldn’t try to pass this off in this way with the rabbit either.

That being said, it’s clear from the wording of the article that your intentions were to shock readers. Why I do not know. I am not sure the type of person who can kill and eat a *PET* rabbit, but perhaps that type of person is the type who also likes attention and to shock people.

K & K…great letter! I think you summed it up perfectly and more importantly, calmly and made your point. So much anger and emotion (no matter how well deserved )can fail to get the point across

KK, just as an FYI, they did go to a rabbit meat farm and picked up the rabbit from there. But I had never realized the fact that they call it beef and pork instead of cow and pig. Wonder why chicken is still chicken.

Actually that practice, calling it beef instead of cow started with the french (or so I’ve read) and quickly became popular…and I’ve always wondered why they still call it chicken too LOL

I did catch the meat farm bit afterwards, but in fairness, i couldn’t closely read the whole article it was gross!! terrible people

very gross!  i couldn’t bring myself to read anything past ‘blows’.  great responses markusdark & k&k.  that was certainly for shock value as there are no doubt less graphic ways to present the same story.  sick stuff.

maybe chicken should be called pull-it

nice letter K&K, keep us posted if any of you guys hear back because i havent had anything back