Happy Easter, Blog Pals!

Have a Wonderful Easter Weekend! I guarantee you that you'll love this video of a little bunny chowing down on a flower and then taking a bath. It is so cute.

Incidentally, this time of year there are plenty of online articles discussing all aspects of Easter celebrations. Many articles are wisely warning moms and dads to refrain from buying their children bunnies and chicks. Others are urging the continuation of such Easter traditions as egg hunts and leaving baskets with fake grass and candy and treats for the little ones on Sunday morning.

One of my favorite Easter articles appeared on the Swazi Observer's website. The Swazi Observer is a Swaziland-based newspaper with all kinds of cool stories. The paper's Q&A on Easter was fascinating. At one point, the FAQ raises the question of "Why bunnies?" on Easter. The answer:

The Easter bunny or rabbit comes from the hare, another ancient, pre-Christian symbol of fertility associated with spring. But it gets even more complicated than that. Anglo-Saxon mythology says Eostara changed her pet bird into a rabbit to entertain a group of children, and the rabbit laid brightly coloured eggs for them. The chocolate bunny, like the chocolate Easter egg, is a much more recent idea, stemming from 18th and 19th-century middle European confectionery traditions, many of which were adopted in Britain.

Makes sense. Check out the Swazi Observer Easter Q&A if you get a chance. They manage to pack lots of cool information into a very entertaining format. Another highly entertaining article comes from Denmark's Copenhagen Post. The headline: "Church Leaders: Fewer Chocolate Bunnies, More Jesus." The article contained some alarming news for the religiously inclined. A key graf:

A recent Gallup poll indicated some discouraging facts about the Christian Easter in Denmark: only a third of Danes said the religious aspect of Easter was important to them, while some 60 percent mainly associate Easter with a break from work. A majority of Danes also placed a much higher value on self-made traditions such as travelling and spending time with the family than on the religious meaning of Easter.

Good for the Danes. Unfortunately, on the other side of the world, New Zealanders have an unfortunate way of getting into the Easter spirit. "New Zealanders go rabbit hunting for the 'Great Easter Bunny Hunt,'" said an L.A. Times headline. The event is scheduled to occur in the Otago region of New Zealand. As one of the organizers explained:

Each team has 12 shooters, so that means we've got 564 hunters, plus their entourage - the 'picker-uppers', the cooks, the supporters -- heading out on to farms throughout Central Otago to do battle with the rabbits.

If I could Blog one parting wish to the bunnies of New Zealand: Be careful. Run fast. Avoid the marauding bands of humans. Actually, let's face it: That's good advice for bunnies and other animals everywhere.

So Far, 2011 is Not Getting Off to a Promising Start...

For those of us who support animals and animal rights, 2011 has not gotten off to a very promising start.

First, there have been the numerous mystery animal deaths, which have defied any explanation. "Dead Birds Fall From the Sky in Italy," said a headline in the Huffington Post. The Discovery News website (affiliated with the Discovery Channel) echoed the Huffington Post: "'Aflockalypse' Hits California." Animals have been falling over dead or washing up on shores in huge numbers in Chicago and Arkansas, in Louisiana and Sweden, in England and Brazil.

Nobody really knows why it's happening. Some scientists have talked about changing magnetic fields. Others emphasize global warming. Toxins have been blamed in certain circles. And the born-again Christian actor Kirk Cameron insists that these mass deaths are the fault of "pagan mythology." (Source)

To make matters worse, the treatment of factory farm animals around the world continues to be deplorable. Just before Christmas, 1,000 pigs were burned alive in a fire in Rostock, Ontario. (Source) In Quebec this past weekend, 20,000 rabbits and 4,000 piglets perished in two separate factory farm fires. (Source) In Germany, large numbers of pigs and chickens were recently given contaminated feed that contained, among other things, dioxin. (Source) Across Europe, countless pigs and chickens have been slaughtered.

But the worst slaughter is going on in South Korea, where an astonishing one million pigs have been buried alive due to an epidemic of Foot-and-Mouth Disease that broke out in November. To quote one report from South Korea (Source):

The South Korean government has so far refused to vaccinate pigs against the disease and is now slaughtering them in record numbers despite appeals to stop. On January 4 in one area of Gangwon-Do, 33,900 pigs alone were destroyed, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

It turns out that Foot-and-Mouth Disease does not infect human beings, even if they eat the meat of animals infected by the disease. The situation in South Korea has been nothing short of catastrophic, as the Straits Times reports:

Nationwide, more than 1.3 million pigs, cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals have been slaughtered or will soon be culled, the agriculture ministry said, as the outbreak showed no sign of abating.

The situation has been so horrific in South Korea that the government is providing therapy for workers who have been traumatized from having to slaughter so many poor, innocent animals. "We've heard reports of people suffering from insomnia, fearfulness, hallucinating sounds and a lack of appetite." (Source)

The horrors occurring in South Korea are unquestionably the most insane example of what happens when we turn animals - sentient beings with thoughts, feelings and emotions - into commodities, whose value is to be measured in profit and loss columns.

Those of us who love animals have a mission in 2011. Our goal is to fight for them. And I don't mean fight for "reforms" and "tinkering" - such as cameras in slaughterhouses or regulations that reduce animal pain in factory farms, or stricter laws that govern fur production. I mean we need to advocate for the total and immediate liberation of all animals, based on the fact that they are not ours to exploit, bury alive, place inside of highly flammable and unsafe factory farms, or murder for their meat or other parts.

Let 2011 be the year that animal liberation becomes a more mainstream goal. We may not be able to control the mystery animal deaths, but we can guarantee that animals are no longer exploited and slaughtered. Animals are not ours to use in any way. This is the message of a truly civilized society.

Thinking of Adopting a Bunny for Easter? Support Farm Sanctuary Instead!

All across North America - in the United States and Canada - people mark the arrival of Easter in different ways. The Easter Basket full of candy, fake grass and toys is one way of celebrating the holiday. Sadly, another way involves live animals. Well-intentioned parents end up giving their children real bunnies for Easter. Rabbits are often cheap around Easter, with a lot of pet stores selling them for around ten dollars. (Source) Normally, I'd say it's a great idea to give these bunnies loving homes. But what often happens is parents buy bunnies for their kids and then eventually the families abandon these poor animals.

This is where my friends at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York, come in. They are urging parents not to adopt bunnies for their kids at Easter unless the families have long-term plans to provide loving homes for the animals. Instead, Farm Sanctuary is urging parents to support an animal resident at Farm Sanctuary. As the Farm Sanctuary Website notes:

The animal residents at Farm Sanctuary’s shelters, many of whom were rescued after being given as “Easter gifts,” depend on adoptive “parents” to provide them with healthy food, a safe habitat, individualized attention and veterinary care. Through the nonprofit organization’s Adopt-A-Farm Animal Project, parents can help give rescued animals a new beginning and inspire compassion in their children by sponsoring an animal in the name of their child (or in their own name). Each unique sponsorship package includes a personalized adoption certificate and beautiful color photo that make the perfect addition to any Easter basket.

What a great idea. Let's hope that before rushing out and adopting a cute bunny or chick (back in 2007, Farm Sanctuary also adopted 49 baby chicks - dyed purple, blue, pink, orange and green - from a Brooklyn pet store), parents decide to sponsor a Farm Sanctuary resident. Also, the wonderful folks at RabbitRescue.ca here in Ontario have been working hard for years to find loving homes for rabbits and they feature sponsorships, too. Check out their Website here. Unless families plan a lifelong commitment to a new member of their family, sponsoring animals is a far more humane way to go.

Whatever You Do, Don't Tell the Kids!

The New York Times triggered some hubbub on the Web when it touted rabbit meat as... well... the New Chicken. The lengthy and detailed article, from March 2, discussed methods of raising and slaughtering rabbits, spotlighted a seminar on how to kill the creatures, and quoted extensively from sources extolling the virtues of rabbit meat. "This is my gateway animal," proclaimed a woman who is considering raising livestock in her backyard.

Indeed, rabbit is a popular delicacy on restaurant menus. "Every time I put it on the menu, it flies out the door," noted a San Francisco restauranteur. Raising rabbit is apparently also all the rage among urban folks who wish to raise animals but aren't quite ready for larger farm animals.

As the story's author Kim Severson noted:

The meat is lean and healthy, and makes an interesting break from chicken. For people learning to butcher at home, a rabbit is less daunting to cut up than a pig or a goat. And those who are truly obsessed with knowing where their food comes from can raise it themselves.

The New York Times article became the focus of several Blogs, including Huffington Post, The National Post and Salon.com. Most of these Blogs discussed the article in a celebratory tone.

It is interesting to note that the headline in the original New York Times story was "Don't Tell the Kids." Why? Because children love bunnies. In general, children possess an instinctive love for animals that is often not quite as strong in adults. I am reminded of my cousin's young daughter, who became a vegetarian long before I did, simply because she loves animals and does not want to see them suffer. In other words, she avoids meat for the noblest reason there is.

My cousin, in one of his Facebook posts, sort of laughed off his daughter's youthful idealism. But there is something about children - omnivores and vegetarians alike - that is more sensitive to the pain and suffering that animals endure. They haven't quite been fully taught - maybe conditioned is a better word - how to rationalize, justify, explain away and live in total denial. Sadly, as we grow older, most of us are socialized to abandon our natural love for animals. We are trained by societal norms to disassociate, to forget that the food we are eating was once part of a living, breathing creature with feelings, emotions, loved ones, a desire to live life, et cetera.

So that's why the New York Times article on butchering rabbits advises us not to tell the kids. Because children haven't been corrupted yet. They instinctively know something many of the rest of us have long since forgotten: That animals deserve the right to a happy life.