Today's Oakland animal horror story: Malnourished rabbits

[KamaAina]

I just don't know what it is about animals and Oaktown. Deer, pet dogs, falcons have all been brutalized there recently -- and now rabbits.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/30/BA7R1K4D93.DTL


Oakland animal officials were scrambling Wednesday to find homes for 21 malnourished, deformed rabbits seized from a Lake Merritt area backyard, where they were being raised for food.

The bunny bust comes just as Oakland enters into the debate over urban agriculture regulations, deciding how to monitor livestock - its treatment and slaughter - in one of the country's hotbeds of urban homesteading.

"This blurs the lines for animal cruelty. When is it OK to raise something for food, and when is it cruelty?" said Megan Webb, director of Oakland animal services. "This is an issue we're all going to have to sort out."

In the case of the 21 rabbits, a neighbor alerted the East Bay SPCA to the rabbits' condition last week, and on Tuesday, staff from Oakland animal services and the SPCA raided the home.

Fair warning: The rest of the article explains the rabbits' condition in quite graphic detail. :scared:

[Booster]

1. I'm one of those people who can't understand how you could

raise anything and then eat it later. My Mother had a little calf that they were raising for food and she got so attached to the little thing (it followed her everywhere like a puppy) that when my stepfather killed it, she refused to eat any of it and wouldn't speak to him for weeks. I'd be the same way. I know it's necessary at times, but I just couldn't do it.

[nc4bo]

2. I understand your feelings but at least your mom took care of her food source...

this person(s) did not.

People raise their own food to avoid the problems associated with Big Agri. These people defeated the purpose if their animals were malnourished, sickly and neglected. Not food I'd want to eat.

I don't understand this at all.

[Booster]

5. A couple of people I know raise animals to eat and, you're right,

they treat the animals very good. Most people wouldn't think of eating a sickly animal cause it's just logical you would want it healthy if you're going to eat it. Some people are just stupid and some people are just plain mean.

[Marrah_G]

3. Odd- you would think they would prefer their meat well-nourished.....

[thecrow]

4. My thoughts exactly but

maybe they were trying to raise their own food because that's the only option they had left.
They couldn't afford food so they raised the bunnies and then they couldn't afford to feed the bunnies.
Maybe that's the reason.
This should be investigated further, and I'm sure it will be, but we may never hear about that side of it.