Thoughts from Megan

My name is Megan, and I am a senior at Drake High School in San Anselmo and I volunteer at SaveABunny. My best subjects are math and science and I hope to be a veterinarian when I am older. I love art as well and have taken an art class every semester at Drake.

I have always loved animals, and when I heard about SaveABunny over the summer I fell in love with their cause and did not hesitate to sign up as a volunteer. At SaveABunny, I have gotten supervisory and veterinary experience and am interested in helping with an anti-rabbit meat campaign. with Marcy. I have gotten to know every rabbit at SaveABunny and would love to each one to go to a good home. Please consider adopting a rabbit from SaveABunny!
Here are my thoughts on rabbits as meat:

BROOKLYN RABBIT CLASS: Killing Pets for Empowerment

On October 28, 2009 ,Oakland native Novella Carpenter flew to Brooklyn to teach urban dwellers how to feel empowered, skilled, and useful. How, you may ask? By killing rabbits.

That’s right. Novella Carpenter gets off by killing innocent pets and is encouraging others to do the same.

Marketing rabbits as “the new chicken”, Carpenter has been teaching townies how to breed, raise, and kill rabbits for the purpose of eating their flesh. Replace that sentence with “beagles” or “kittens” and you can see how sick these workshops truly are.

The truth is, the rabbits that are being butchered for consumption are the same exact animals sold in pet shops. The same ones that can be taught tricks, use a litterbox, learn their own name, and are loved by millions of people worldwide.

But hey, Novella Carpenter loves rabbits too. In fact, in her blog she explains that “It is possible to have a really great relationship with animals that you eat. You can love them, feed them the best food, and then it’s time to eat!” Yep, you heard her. She literally kills and eats her companions as soon as they are big enough.

You may have heard of Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. She grows her own lettuce, plows her own soil, and, as it turns out, slaughters her own meat. A quote from last weeks CUESA newsletter:

"During her recent book tour, Carpenter hosted a rabbit butchering workshop in New York, where she noticed a growing interest in urban farming. Before the workshop began, a housewife from New Jersey pulled Carpenter aside and admitted that she wouldn’t be able go through with slaughtering a rabbit. But after watching the demonstration, the participant was eager for her turn. “She turned out to be a great slaughterer and a great butcher,” Carpenter recalled. “She felt empowered.”"

Empowered. Interesting choice of words.

Killing has always made humans feel empowered. It's why most of us don't care about killing animals food even though we don't have to - we're better than them. We're more powerful then them. We're on top because we deserve to be.

It's why we kill each other, too. A soldier or a psychopath or an executioner - all of it is for someone's empowerment. It's a crappy excuse to kill. We all know it's a crappy excuse to kill.

Yet, when a housewife feels empowered after killing an animal, we say, "Oh good for her. Oh she's so in touch with nature. Oh she's defying the weak female stereotype."

The truth is, she's falling into the same crude, cruel way of life that Carpenter and her followers despise in people like Sarah Palin. The one where some life is valued over other life. The one where killing is OK because it's part of a lifestyle.

How is killing a defenseless companion animal like a rabbit, in the name of sustainability, better than killing a wild animal in the name of sport?

The sustainability community was horrified by pictures of Sarah Palin kneeling in blood-stained snow, showing her daughter how to kill a moose. We were disgusted by the Thanksgiving video of her speech in front of a turkey farm, where turkeys were being shoved into a butchering machine in the background. Yet, when a supposed member of our own community performs the same act, it's "empowering".

It's not an excuse. It's a problem. Just because something is local, or sustainable, or better for the environment, doesn't mean it's compassionate. And it doesn't mean it's right.