Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum THE LOUNGE I win for the most disturbing article this month – Rabbits as fuel.

Viewing 11 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • MarkBun
      Participant
      2842 posts Send Private Message

        I can understand it – I just can’t believe it.  As someone who tries to be as open minded as possible about people ‘on the other side’ of rabbits, this one just has me shocked and stunned.  Text Below:

        http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091014/od_nm/us_sweden_burning

         

        STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Forget bunny boiling jealous rages and rapacious butchers. The biggest threats to Peter Rabbit’s Swedish cousins are the cold, the cull and their flammable cadavers.

        The city of Stockholm shoots thousands of wild rabbits spread across the green spaces of the Swedish capital and sends their bodies to be burned as heating fuel, a practice which has enraged animal rights groups.

        City official Mats Freij said Stockholm killed 6,000 wild rabbits last year and has culled 3,000 so far this year, but said a subcontractor decided to use the cadavers as fuel.

        “One should put this in the perspective that we (humans) are actually cremated ourselves and that generates a completely different reaction,” Freij said in response to criticism.

        Animal Rights Sweden spokeswoman Lise-Lott Alsenius questioned whether the practice was humane or ethical and suggested neutering the male rabbits as an alternative method of holding down the population.

        “One at least has to evaluate what the alternatives are to just simply shooting them,” she said.

        Konvex, the company handling the operation, said the rabbits were ground up with the cadavers of other beasts, mainly farm animals such as cows which have been deemed unfit for human consumption, reduced to flammable form and incinerated.

        “Just as with us people … the bodies contain a lot of fat and fat has exactly the same energy content as normal heating oil for instance,” Konvex Chief Executive Leo Virta said.


      • Sarita
        Participant
        18851 posts Send Private Message

          Yes, you do win for that. That’s awful!


        • kralspace
          Participant
          2663 posts Send Private Message

            Good Lord, how could anyone top that?


          • bunnyluvr
            Participant
            409 posts Send Private Message

              That is horrible.


            • hooty22
              Participant
              606 posts Send Private Message

                This is terrible. I can’t believe they go out to shoot rabbits just for this purpose. It doesn’t really make much sense to me either.
                I don’t understand… Rabbits aren’t really all that meaty or fatty… They seem like the worst animal to choose for this.


              • Jenna, Chubs & Comet
                Participant
                617 posts Send Private Message

                  All I can say is


                • Sage Cat
                  Participant
                  1883 posts Send Private Message

                    That is just weird!


                  • Adalaide
                    Participant
                    433 posts Send Private Message

                      Posted By hooty22 on 10/14/2009 02:07 PM
                      This is terrible. I can’t believe they go out to shoot rabbits just for this purpose. It doesn’t really make much sense to me either.
                      I don’t understand… Rabbits aren’t really all that meaty or fatty… They seem like the worst animal to choose for this.

                       

                      They aren’t shooting them just for this purpose. It seems as though they have a serious overpopulation problem. I’m going to be devil’s advocate here… would you rather 6000 rabbits shot or 12000 rabbits starving to death? Of course, another option would be to reintroduce natural predators to take care of the problem. I grew up in PA where the first day of deer season is one of the most important days of the year. Schools shut down, government shuts down, businesses close for the day. Just so people can go shoot a deer. If people stopped hunting deer the population would become so high in just a few years that there would be widespread starvation. I suppose if you look at it that way it seems more of a crime that they are being burned rather than eaten. I’ll agree it’s tragically sad to know that 6000 buns a year will die and become heat, but I’m much happier with this story than near extinction due to overpopulation.


                    • Adalaide
                      Participant
                      433 posts Send Private Message

                        So, intrigued I did a bit more research. It seems as though this problem probably started with irresponsible pet owners. Some people suggest neutering the male buns. How exactly these people propose to catch half of a wild rabbit population, pay for surgeries and recovery time and just let them back is beyond me. So that idea frankly is pretty dumb once you start thinking about the logistics of it. Besides, all it takes is one human putting one male rabbit out in the park and suddenly in a year you have tons of rabbit babies anyway. Some people suggest doing something different with the rabbits. Here’s a link for what Helsinki did when faced with the same problem.
                        http://www.swedishwire.com/oddly/973-helsinki-tackles-rabbit-menace-with-lions-
                        Australia has used biological engineering to release diseases to the wild rabbit population to kill them. Tragic as this story is, it’s far from the suffering of a rabbit caused by the two diseases Australia has unleashed on them. From what I can find it’s also not that uncommon for other household pets to be euthenised becasue of these diseases.

                        I suppose though that maybe it’s easier for me to step back and look at this differently. I grew up on a farm where shooting the pests who were destroying crops was something that no one ever thought twice about.


                      • MimzMum
                        Participant
                        8029 posts Send Private Message

                          I hate this story, but yes, I see Adalaide’s point. Burn after shooting (instead of the normal process of decomposition) or allow to suffer and die horribly in a group whose number is legion? Tough choices. Terrible choices. But I get it.
                          I think mankind sometimes does more to harm the earth just by eating than he/she does with anything else. The deer hunt reminds me…first a large group of people kill off a large number of animals. Nature reacts by upping the population. Then there’s too many but instead of allowing nature to continue to fix things by bringing in more predators, humans then have this ‘excuse’ to hunt more animals and the predators as well, which upsets the balance further. But it’s a conundrum that, once begun, is hard to find a stopping point for.
                          However if they ever think they’re coming over here to take my house bunnies for fuel…well, I may have to do some ‘predator reduction’ of my own. >_<


                        • jerseygirl
                          Moderator
                          22338 posts Send Private Message

                            There has to be smarter ways to deal with rabbit over poulation problems. It just goes to show how this problem can progress to such controversial issues in handling it. If only it were handled at the beginning by speutering. Over population is not good for the environment but this use of rabbits cannot be very good for it either.
                            If you want to stay warm, get a bunch of fixed rabbits and cuddle with them!
                            Basically, to me, this new use is


                          • MimzMum
                            Participant
                            8029 posts Send Private Message

                              With how terrified the planet is at rampant disease proliferation, I don’t see it getting better for wild rabbits anytime soon. Just imagine if all these buns were to be sick as well…the traditional method is exactly as described.
                              But yes, I must assert that I do not like to see any life destroyed in such a cavalier fashion. Who will be next? Dogs and cats at shelters? But Europe does tend to be more pragmatic about this sort of thing, imo…just do what works and hang the consequences.

                          Viewing 11 reply threads
                          • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                          Forum THE LOUNGE I win for the most disturbing article this month – Rabbits as fuel.