Rabbits in the News

Youth take up challenge to popularise rabbit meat in Kisumu. 

"I  make samples and take them to the hotels and restaurants around the city to convince them that they can add rabbit stew in their menus and we can supply them with the meat,” she says.

Raising rabbits remains popular in Texas.  

Don Mersiovsky, president of the TRBA, began raising rabbits when he was a 9-year-old 4-H student in Belton. Living in the city, rabbits were the easiest animal for him to raise. He's been raising them ever since. Where rabbits rank on the list of most popular animals for 4-H students to raise depends on the part of the state, Mersiovsky said.

"In areas that are more urban, where there are a lot of subdivisions and neighborhoods, you're usually going to see more rabbits," he said. "They're not as big as other livestock, but you can learn the same life skills and the same sense of responsibility that you get with any other animal. You have to take care of it and make sure it's healthy and well-fed. You have to learn the right way to do things.

"We have a lot of physically-disadvantaged kids who show rabbits. You don't have to be physically fit. Some of the special needs kids find rabbits a lot easier to handle, and they're not as scared. We've had kids with cerebral palsy and one with muscular dystrophy. It's a good way for them to learn the same life skills as anybody else."

 Rearing rabbits changed his life.

 A youth who had taken up rabbit rearing as an excellent means of self-employment, is leading a content life now.

Rabbits Are Not Overpopulated: The Ethics of Rabbit Breeding.  

The answer is, perhaps surprisingly, that rabbits do not actually contribute to pet overpopulation. Despite being very prolific breeders, pet rabbits are not overpopulated in the United States, so breeding them does not present the same moral concerns associated with the breeding of cats and dogs.

 The Rabbit Overpopulation Myth.  

The only reliable figure for rabbit abandonment comes from a 1997 shelter survey that estimated 43,519 rabbits abandoned in US shelters in 1996. This estimate does not come from any rescue group or animal rights group, as they all claim they have no information about shelter numbers, but rather from an individual who did it himself. And from Rabbits Annual 1998-99 "Fewer rabbits are being dumped because people know how to care for them." Paige Parsons HRS educator.

Useful Blog on Rabbits.     Lists a variety of topics.  Seems fairly knowledgeable.

 

 

 

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Easter Bunnies - WHY?

Here's a story for you. 

BROOKFIELD- Everyone knows that rabbits don’t lay eggs—so what is this thing with Easter bunnies? Why not an Easter duck? Or an Easter hen? That would make more sense, wouldn’t it?

Well, Easter bunnies, like most Christian holiday traditions, are drawn from pagan beliefs, dusted off, repackaged and sold as representative of Christ’s story. In the case of Easter bunnies, rabbits are notorious for their fervent lovelife and their consequent fertility. Easter, the season of rebirth, not illogically became associated with hares and rabbits, as did eggs, the very icon of new life.

The Easter bunny appears to have originated in Germany, where tales were told of the “Easter hare,” which laid eggs for children to find. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter. The tradition was carried to America by German immigrants, and the immigrants may have also made popular the practice of making chocolate bunnies and eggs.

.......

 Why they were dyed different colors remains a mystery, but a variety of traditions have emerged. The ancient Zoroastrians are said to have painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the spring equinox. The Nawrooz tradition is said to have existed for at least 2,500 years. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowrooz to the king. Egyptians, Romans and Greeks are also reported to have dyed eggs for their spring celebrations.

....

 The decorated eggs became the object of children’s games, a practice that continues today in Easter Egg hunts and egg rolls. The most famous egg roll takes place on the White House lawn every year, a tradition said to have been originated by the irrepressibly social Dolly Madison, who, told that Egyptian children used to roll eggs down the pyramids, invited Washington, D.C., children to roll hard-boiled eggs down the hilly lawn of the new Capitol building.

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anyways, go read the whole article if you are so inclined.  Just thought it made for some interesting research.  :)

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