[Bonoluvr]

So we went to one of the local town fairs today. the usual rides, food etc........there were also many animals like cows, goats, llamas, rabbits etc from local farms.........well my dd has been asking me for a pet rabbit.....we have 3 dogs and 1 cat so not sure our household should bring a rabbit in, but anyway, there was a tent with rabbits galore, they had some out so the kids could pet them, so we are petting this beautiful rabbit and i casually say to the man "whats her name"........his response "102"..........ok, i say .......he says "well if you had 200 rabbits you would have to number them"

ok fine, then i make the mistake of asking him if he breeds them for sale like to pet stores etc for pets..........his response, "they are bred for MEAT and their SKIN"

my dd ( 6 yo) looks at him really mad, looks at me, shakes her head no, crinkles up her nose. he looks at us like "what?" doesnt everyone eat rabbit meat...........uhmmmm NO we are vegetarians.

i just said I didnt want to discuss it, and let it go. i felt it was really cruel to say that in front of the kids anyway, but i guess some people just see animals as product, it just sickened me to no end. and i could have said more but i held my tongue since kids were with me, but i was proud of my dd's response, she realizes how sick it is already and she is just turned 6 yo.

 

[raw jess]

Right on!!!! If he was joking about the rabbits name, that's sick. If he was serious, that's dumb. If you can remember a rabbits number by looking at him, you would be able to remember a name a whole lot easier.

 

[Bonoluvr]

oh he was serious, he showed me the inside of the rabbits ear and 102 was tatooed there. i felt like grabbing the rabbit and making a run for it, the fat ******* would never have caught me.......teehee.......of course im kidding!! i would never do that, especially in front of the kids.......LOL

 

[Tame]

So, because your daughter was present he was supposed to lie about what the rabbits were for? I don't get it.

 

[Iria]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tame

So, because your daughter was present he was supposed to lie about what the rabbits were for? I don't get it.

I agree. I grew up in 4-H and worked at fairs for a long time. Even the youngest children know what the animals are there for. When you grow up in an atmosphere like that, it's just a fact of life. Farm people don't shelter kids from that sort of thing, and it's easy to not realize that some people are sensitive about it. Of course, it is a little different with rabbits since they are generally thought of as pets and very few people eat them. I always did a double-take when I saw the words "meat pen" above a rabbit cage.

 

[Bonoluvr]

well tame there is something called discretion,

We have a 6 yo and a 3 yo patting a rabbit. oohing and ahhing how cute he is,

and instead of this ass saying the rabbit will be dinner , he could have said something else, he could have handed me his pamphlet which i happened to notice after the fact.

but yeah, he could have said something else, especially in front of kids.

my opinion but yes, maybe you dont care if someone says something that bothers or scares your kids but i do.

 

[Bonoluvr]

and yes i for one didnt think MEAT for the rabbit anyway, the cows i never would have inquired, the rabbits.......different story, i think of them as a pet not dinner.

 

[Pescas]

Well if you did have 200 rabbits you would have to number them =o I understand the numbering, if you raised them for meat you wouldnt want to be too attached to them.

 

[Tame]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonoluvr

well tame there is something called discretion, you might have heard of it.

I'm not very familiar with it, no.

Quote:

We have a 6 yo and a 3 yo patting a rabbit. oohing and ahhing how cute he is,

and instead of this ass saying the rabbit will be dinner , he could have said something else, he could have handed me his pamphlet which i happened to notice after the fact.

I don't think it is fair to call him an ass. You asked, he answered. To him, what he is doing is perfectly normal, so he isn't expecting anyone else to be offended by it. Raising animals for meat is not something usually considered offensive to children. Now, if he would have said he was going to use them as sex toys, I could understand your dismay.

Quote:

but yeah, he could have said something else, especially in front of kids.

my opinion but yes, maybe you dont care if someone says something that bothers or scares your kids but i do.

I don't expect others to anticipate that otherwise reasonable behaviors will emotionally scar my children, so no.

 

[Spidergrrl]

Pescas--love your avatar! We are big fans of Lenore--we just bought Cooties.

 

[Thalia]

Well people who grow up in a rural community that raises animals never use discretion because it is part of their lifestyle as Iria mentioned. All their kids already know what the animals are for.

The way I see it not talking about the reality of animal husbandry is why there aren't more vegetarians. It allows the majority of people to live with their heads in the sand. I wish more people talked so bluntly, even in front of children. It might be upsetting to a child, but that bluntness may have made the next child who came along eventually become vegetarian.

 

[Bonoluvr]

thalia you are right, my kids are already veg but maybe the next one who came along would become veg.

if i had actually realized people really EAT rabbits i never would have said anything. now i know for next time, mental note "do not speak to animal breeders, just look and walk away"

sigh

 

[Edamommy]

isn't it awful?

BUT--- I don't think the person should have LIED to you as to what the rabbits were for. You can NOT AGREE with him if you want, but why would he or she "clean up" his truth in this instance? It's sad, and I don't agree with it... but it's the truth. My 3 yo ds understands that other people chose to eat animals...

we were accosted by someone from the sheep and lamb alliance while at our local fair. Good enough.... BUT she wanted us to judge in the "lamb chilli cook-off". I thought my ds (3 1/2) was going to FLIP... we laughed and said- we're vegetarians and we try to not eat other's babies!!

 

[kpickell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iria

I agree. I grew up in 4-H and worked at fairs for a long time. Even the youngest children know what the animals are there for. When you grow up in an atmosphere like that, it's just a fact of life. Farm people don't shelter kids from that sort of thing, and it's easy to not realize that some people are sensitive about it. Of course, it is a little different with rabbits since they are generally thought of as pets and very few people eat them. I always did a double-take when I saw the words "meat pen" above a rabbit cage.

Iria is spot on.

The goats are my favorite animals to watch at the fairs. I love watching them play. But it's sad to look up and see their breed listed as "meat goat" or something like that. And it's mostly kids or teens that are working with these meat animals in 4H so of course they all know what's going to happen to them. It's almost like a completely different culture from the one I'm used to.

 

[Bonoluvr]

Tame the reason i referred to this person as an "ass" is because it was quite obvious the kids were loving the rabbit, and when he said she would be dinner he smirked. smiled and looked at them sooooooo i know he did that on purpose the way he answered me. he was trying to scare them in my opinion , he didnt because yes they already know about cows, pigs, chickens, but mommy forgot rabbits because she didnt remember or think about rabbits being food ( if you can call rabbit meat food).

 

[Tame]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonoluvr

Tame the reason i referred to this person as an "ass" is because it was quite obvious the kids were loving the rabbit, and when he said she would be dinner he smirked. smiled and looked at them sooooooo i know he did that on purpose the way he answered me. he was trying to scare them in my opinion , he didnt because yes they already know about cows, pigs, chickens, but mommy forgot rabbits because she didnt remember or think about rabbits being food ( if you can call rabbit meat food).

Ah, so now you change the story. Not buying it.

You asked, he answered. And, uh, why wouldn't rabbit meat be food?

 

[puppyluv]

Fairs serve a two-fold purpose---First and foremost to show off the "wares" of the growers and breeders and secondly for entertainment. All the animals, whether they are dairy cows, beef cows, sheep, hogs, cute little bunnies, etc. are there for ONE reason and that is to highlight that the breeder has high quality livestock to sell. Many, but not all of the animals are breeding livestock and just like purebred dogs, they have to "show" them in order to call attention to their farm or ranch and its products. The fact that the general non-farming public gets to see the animals is just a side aspect of a fair. Although some people allow their animals to be petted, it does not mean that they are running a petting zoo back on the farm. These people are serious about the businesses they run. It is their livelihood and no matter whether we agree or disagree with them, we need to understand that they are not there for US--esp. vegetarians. I also went to the fair this year. I didn't want to go, having grown up on a farm and knowing all the "behind the scenes" goings on, but my husband perseuded me to go with him. . I too saw all the rabbits. Literatlly hundreds in cages of beautiful bunnies, many being raised by children just like some of the other animals. There is one good thing about fairs and that is exactly what happened to you and your daughter and that is fairs make people do a big REALITY CHECK. The best thing to do to discourage the production of meat --just like with cigarettes, is not to buy any. So, even though you thought the man was being "insensitve," he was only being honest about his business which was why he was at the fair in the first place. I saw my first animals killed (by my own mother) when I was barely 4 years old. She chopped the head off one of our chickens with an axe while it was still alive and it ran around the yard headless before it died. That was quite a shock! The best reaction you as a mother should have was to see the "teachable moment" rather than your anger. Just let your child know that some people eat meat, but your family doesn't because you have found a better way to eat than killing animals. You see, the farmer isn't doing anything worse than a lion who kills and then brings a bloody carcass back to feed its young. He is just providing for his family. The difference between humans and wild predators like the lion however, is that we have figured out other ways to obtain food and the lion hasn't.

ps: I personally would be wary of bringing a pet bunny into a home with a dog. Almost all dogs will go after a rabbit and try to kill it.

 

[Edamommy]

oh, I wanted to mention that you may not want to bring a rabbit into your home with dogs that don't know rabbits.

Our rabbit lives peacefully w/ my 2 dogs... but they have both been raised w/ rabbits.

 

[Bonoluvr]

oh NO i would never bring a bunny into my home, we have 3 dogs, one of which has been know to chase down any wild turkey that comes into our yard. she caught one one time before i could intervene ( she literally climbed over the fence of the fenced in area of our property.)........she caught it and killed it, my husband and i tried to save it, but it was too late, so he buried it in the woods behind our house. the turkeys rarely come on our property anymore.

 

[meatless]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpickell

Iria is spot on.

The goats are my favorite animals to watch at the fairs. I love watching them play. But it's sad to look up and see their breed listed as "meat goat" or something like that. And it's mostly kids or teens that are working with these meat animals in 4H so of course they all know what's going to happen to them. It's almost like a completely different culture from the one I'm used to.

This is what I grew up around, although I wasn't a "farming kid" (with the exception of a dozen chickens we had when I was very young, 4-5 years old. They were supposedly *my* chickens, and I didn't even realize until quite a while later what their fate was.) Many of the people I knew until I was 18 were farmers and farmer's kids.

I had a friend in highschool whose father was a cattle farmer. He had his own cow who he "raised" and doted on, and was devastated when her life came to its sadly inevitable end.

Ironically, I get better reactions about my veganism from the people I grew up with than I do average city people.