Easter Bunnies For Sale! Down The Rabbit Hole Of Bad Ideas...

IN MY CAGE

by Mary Brandolino

It was colorful and fun
The new life that I'd begun
In my new cage.

I was just a little thing
When they brought me from the store
And they put me on the floor
In my cage.

They would take me out to play
Love and pet me all the time
Then at day's end I would climb
In my cage.

But as days and weeks went by
I saw less of them it seemed
Of their loving touch I dreamed
In my cage.

In the night outside their house
I felt sad and so neglected
Often scared and unprotected
In my cage.

In the dry or rainy weather
Sometimes hotter sometimes colder
I just sat there growing older
In my cage.

The cat and dog raced by me
Playing with each other only
While I sat there feeling lonely
In my cage.

Upon the fresh green grass
Children skipped and laughed all day 
I could only watch them play
From my cage.

They used to take me out
And let me scamper in the sun
I no longer get to run
In my cage.

Once a cute and cuddly bunny
Like a little ball of cotton
Now I'm grown up and forgotten
In my cage.

I don't know what went wrong
At the home I did inhabit
I just grew to be a rabbit
In my cage.

But they've brought me to the pound
I was once loved and enjoyed
Now I wait to be destroyed
In my cage

Now that's a sad ending isn't it? You too can speak up about why it's such a bad idea to purchase rabbits (or chicks) for children by hopping over to this post at the VeganElder blogspot. 

Or you can copy the letter below that was written by my vet Mitsie Vargas:

Around Easter, many pet stores stock up on hot items including live chicks and rabbits.  These animals are often given to young children as presents. After Easter the number of relinquished rabbits and chicks overwhelms many shelters. The current proposed bill will result in extremely young and delicate chicks, ducks and bunnies being sold as Easter gifts. These fragile beings will also be dyed further inflicting unnecessary distress in these animals. The dyed appearance will cause them to be objectified and treated as toys, not as living beings.

Many folks think rabbits and chicks are low maintenance pets that only require a small cage and little attention. The truth is, they have special dietary and housing requirements.  Rabbits need a balanced diet of pellets, fresh lettuce and other vegetables, and grass hays.  They also require daily exercise and space enough to perform 3 consecutive hops in a cage.  Chicks grow into chickens. They are omnivores but should be fed commercial chicken feed. They need roaming space outdoors. Roosters when they hit sexual maturity, have the potential to become aggressive.  That small Easter gift of a bunny or chick can also pose a health hazard to your kids or end up victimized by young children. Young kids tend to be rougher and not understand that rabbits can easily break their backs when handled.  Plus rabbits have long toenails that leave deep scratches especially if handled improperly. On the other hand, chicks can carry salmonella and E. coli that may cause serious diarrhea and possible death to young children. 

Rabbits are the third most relinquished pets to animal shelters, which are usually equipped to handle only a few rabbits and rodents at a time. Most end up being euthanized.  Rabbits and chickens that do not make it to a shelter are often released to the wild to fend for themselves and those that do not starve to death, become easy prey for predators in the wild. 

 
This Easter season share in God's goodness and honor his creations by refusing to buy, give or accept live bunnies and chicks. Chocolate ones are delicious and do not result in any harm.  

I can add another reason why most rabbits (and other delicate creatures) do poorly with most kids... 

We all love the idyllic image of children with soft, devoted caresses lavished to their bunnies...



But let's face it... Most of the time kids would much rather play with their electronic gizmos and video games, and then the tearful poem is recited again. :'(

So instead of buying a bunny why not let your kids "assemble" one of many right here: Bunny Puzzles

Like the video says: Please treat the lives of others gently and respectfully. Go Vegan.


"Hopping" you have a very friendly Easter. ;)

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I Am the Vegan Activist - By Will Tuttle

  I Am the Vegan Activist

By Will Tuttle

I am the vegan activist,
   My heart filled with the wish to relieve the horrible suffering
   Mysteriously inflicted on animals seen as food.
   Rising early, sitting in silence every day, listening within, opening... dilating....
I am the day-old calf at the organic dairy,
   Pulled from my mother by strong hard hands, while she moans and bellows.
   Alone in a tight crate, I shiver, hungry, nursing on the iron bars.
I am the little child, being spoon-fed my first solid food.
    I keep spitting it out, but it keeps coming back, relentlessly.
   “Eat this,” mommy says, “it’s mashed potato and calves’ liver—it’s good for you.”
I am the little girl, on the day it sinks in—
   “Hot dogs,” “hamburgers,” “bacon,” “eggs,” “veal,” “chicken,” “liver,” “fish sticks”—
   You mean, it’s animals I’ve been eating?  A darkness enters my chest.
I am the young child, being taught how to fish.
   “Don’t worry, fish can’t feel any pain,” I’m told.
   “And even if they could, God gave ‘em to us to eat.”
   “Oh.  O.K.”
I am in the dentist’s chair,
   Immobilized, while he pulls, pries, drills: oh, it hurts!
   Deep down, I know he’s doing it for my own good...
I am the calf at branding time, castrating time,
   The pig at ear-notching, tail-docking time,
   The chicken at beak-cutting time,
   Immobilized, while he cuts me, burns my flesh—oh, it hurts!
   Rough hands that hurt me, the horror of strong inescapable hurting hands!
I am the minister at the church barbecue,
   Laughing, happy, my flock spread around me,
   Chewing on the ribs of lambs, why, we’ve raised five hundred dollars here today!
I am the cowboy at the rodeo.
   “Shock him good, I want him runnin’!”
   A quick chase and lasso throw, jerk the rope, he’s flat and down;
   I drink the cheers.
I am the young cow—another rodeo.
   The ropes and blows and cages, suddenly a searing pain, like a knife,
   A door flies open, I run to escape. Sudden slamming twisting agony;
   Cheers and laughter.
I am the former vegetarian, I’ve been there.
   I’m not rigid and judgmental, and anyway:
   A person’s body is not defiled by what goes in the mouth, but by what comes out.
I am the slaughterhouse worker,
   Prodding and poking cows along with my knife and electro-shocker,
   Like I was prodded and kicked when I was a kid.
I am the slaughterhouse foreman,
   Enslaved by demands for profit and production
  “Speed up the line!” we’re lagging—big trucks keep comin’, full of chickens.
I am the feedlot operator, fattening cattle.
   Belly hanging, back sore, joints aching, I sit down to a comforting steak.
  “Anyway, it’s not what goes into a man’s mouth...”
I am the terrified dairy cow,
   Still young, just five years old, facing the slaughterhouse chute,
   The pain of the prod, the fear so thick I can smell it, the hard hands. . . .
I am the young fattened turkey,
   Grabbed by one leg and hung upside down,
   Ligaments torn, I hang in the moving line with the others:
   Helpless pain and terror.
I am the self-shining Light of Infinite Love,
   I welcome every turkey, pig, cow, duck, chicken, lobster, fish—
  Not as animals, but as what they truly are—Myself.
  The nightmare ordeal over, their pain-wracked bodies forever left,
  I embrace them as the essence of what they are—
  The Joy that springs at the heart of the Universe,
  The only Life that is.
  And I embrace my other beloved children, when it is their time:
  The hardened slaughterhouse workers, the diseased housewives, the managers,
  The scholars and ministers, the vegetarians and non-vegetarians,
  The gorillas, the wolves, the pet cats and the hunted deer,
  I open and embrace every being with eternal utter love,
  And hold them forever as rays sent forth,
  And embrace them when they return, as the heart of their own heart,
  And they are judged only by themselves,
  And are punished only by their own actions in the endless rounds of being,
  Of learning and growing, of eventually understanding,
  Of celebrating Me, the utter joy and perfection of Being,
  The freedom shining in the heart of every being.
I am the vegan activist,
   My heart filled with knowing the perfection of being,
   And working hard to help relieve the horrible suffering

   Mysteriously inflicted on animals seen as food.

More poetry by Will Tuttle

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