A Sad Day at the Zoo for Bunnies…

[dlscanne]

Ok so I dont want to make people upset, but I was visiting my local zoo today and when I got to the wolf pen….there was a huge white wolf napping in the middle of his enclosure….with a dead (still untouched) rabbit laying next to it.  The hardest thing for me was that it looked like it could have been any of our house rabbits…it was white with broken orange spots. 

I understand everything needs to eat and this is probably the closest they can get to the wolf’s natural diet, but it was like seeing a dead housecat laying in there.  {{{RIP wolf enclosure bunny}}}  At least he looked like he had been well fed when he was still alive.

I’m not really intending for a debate to start about this but I thought maybe we could all think about the little guy for a moment.

[MimzMum]

Oh poor bunny! *tears up*

Jeez, I love wolves, they are beautiful creatures…but seriously…is this scene something you want to take your kid to see? I mean, I’d have a hard time looking at that even if it was a feral rabbit.

(binky free little bun) ;_;

[jerseygirl]

Oh Gosh!

Wonder if it was a feral that got into the enclosure and nature took it’s course? If it was fed to the wolf, that is more upsetting. Seems wrong, and people coming to the zoo expect to see all kinds if living creatures. Only thing you’d expect to see food wise is fish or meat portions. I hate to think this…what if someone smuggled it into the zoo deliberately…arrrghhhh.

*Binky Free Zoobunny, Be free of Fear*

[dlscanne]

I thought that too. it was odd, but I’m pretty sure (hope) it was fed to them because it was clearly dead but with no marks on it…was probably stunned I think. There was a place inside where they had some of the animal’s daily diets posted. Most of them just said “meat” for the carnivores, but two had rabbits listed…the wolves and an animal called a Fossa. The Fossa also had some specialty food like quail and eggs. Maybe some of them just really need their natural diet. still sad though.

[jerseygirl]

Yes, I probably jumped the gun a bit. That the rabbit was untouched makes it seem it was already dead. Weird that it was untouched too.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Actually they do that at most zoos. I volunteered with our zoo for a time so if I can make you feel better here’s what they do.

Firstly, they have a ‘full food’ day for the predators usually once a week (the rest of the diet is meat, and kibbles) where they feed a whole animal to them.
The animals they feed, include rabbits-but they are kept and killed more humanely then meat is for human consumption. The animals live naturally and cleanly at the zoo, and breed and are kept well (At least at ours-but most zoos are under constant scrutiney for ethics and welfare). The animals are humanely euthanized with gas, and then fed to the predators.

They do this as per zoo guidelines-it’s inhumane to give a live animal to a predator.

I don’t like it, but it’s nature and I don’t think its very different in principle then meat that humans eat. However I had to avert my eyes when we went to that area of the zoo, so I didn’t fall in love with somebody and try to bring them home….

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sad… If I would have come across that I probably would have cried. I’m so emotional when it comes to bunnies

[Lily]

Me to, i would have broke down crying right there in the zoo XD Then ran home an snuggled my bunnys. I think its horrable that they would have that displayed for peaple to just see, its depresing. I think its inhuman of them to be feeding soemthign so cute, why not give they wolves deer meat or something? I dont eat meat myself because I dont feel that its right but alot of peaple her hunt  rabbits, its so sad

*R.I.P. Zoo bunny*

[LittlePuffyTail]

I know that at my zoo the big animals, like wolves and cats, are fed from animals like moose and deer that get hit by cars (I know this because when I was 10 I went to a kids camp at the zoo and the kids hut was, of all, places, next to the butcher shop and there just happened to be a big deer carcass hanging from the racks for all the little traumatized kids to see). They also feed them horses that have died and the owners can’t bury them so they donate them to the zoo. Pretty terrible, but at least it’s not killing rabbits for the carnivores to eat. These animals were dead anyways.

ps. When my horse Winnie dies she will NOT be going to the zoo.

[dlscanne]

yikes! this past August one of my favorite horses from the ranch I work on died with his head in my arms…I can’t imagine shipping him off to the zoo either!

However, I think the one good thing about that is that it teaches kids about the reality of nature. I think sometimes we are very disconnected from the meat we eat…it comes to us prepackaged on nice white styrofoam trays, and cut into tidy slices. That’s not reality. At least the animals fed to others at the zoo probably died much more humanely and lived much better lives than those we eat ourselves.

Domestic horses and rabbits though? A little rough for those of us who love them and care about their welfare.

[KytKattin]

Posted By dlscanne on 02/04/2009 4:52 PM

Domestic horses and rabbits though? A little rough for those of us who love them and care about their welfare.

For the horses; in my personal opinion this is not a bad thing. I have my own horses, and I’m affiliated with a rescue, which makes me very aware of the number of unwanted horses. Quite frankly, we don’t have even enough homes for the healthy horses, let alone the ones that were born with a problem, or have been ridden into a crippling state. Unlike rabbits, horses can take hundreds of dollars a month, and that is if they don’t need extra grain, hay, medication, or special shoes. Plus people keep breeding them, with little thought of their parents strengths or faults and produce horses that can’t function as we expect them to into their teens. Then there are the horses that age out of use. Many people won’t keep a horse if they can no longer ride it. I hate the thought of a horse being mistreated, but I’d rather see it humanely euthenized (which needs to be regulated and actually happen again in the states) in a way that can feed another animal than left out in a pasture or abandoned because someone can’t afford to feed it. After that the body would be put to good use as meat for an animal that needs it, and may only be surviving in captivity in a few years due to distruction of natural habitat.

 

As for the rabbits, it might seem wrong since they’re domestic, but it isn’t any different then someone breeding mice and rats to feed to raptors or the chickens, pigs, and cows we grow en mass for ourselves. A rabbit is something that the wolf is more likely to go catch it’s self, and it provides the marrow, bones, and other essential nutrients that it can’t get from just a piece of meat because it’s doesn’t contain all parts of the animal. Plus since most of it’s food is probably a kibble of some sort, a lot of the nutrients can get cooked out. All that being said, many zoos do have a holding area behind the scenes that animals are often taken to for the night or because they don’t get along with all members of their species housed at the zoo. If this zoo did have such a place then that is where the rabbit should have been offered. Or better yet, put a sign up explaining how they take care of the rabbits that someone might see in the pen, and why the wolf needs to eat the rabbit. Yes, we care about the welfare of our beloved pets, and members of their species, but in caring for them I think we should take the angle of educating the public, putting a stop to backyard breeding, and imposing tough regulations on how we take the life of animals used for food.

[KytKattin]

Sorry, double post.

[Author]

Messages