Thank you so much, Brody!
I doubted that lady's rabbits were stolen for profit either, but when I came across that letter last week, it confirmed something I had thought -- that in the situation I find myself in, raising rabbits for food in the city, I need to be careful. If the rabbits don't need to be mentioned, then they aren't mentioned.
One of our next-door neighbors (very, very nice lady) supports the ASPCA. It says so on a sign in her yard. She also works in the neighborhood homeowners' association. What would she think of our rabbits being raised for meat? I have no idea. She appeared at the back of the house one day while we were working on the new rabbitry. The kids were outside with the rabbits, who were overcrowded and definitely not in ideal conditions at the time.
Since she was already there, the kids excitedly showed off the rabbits. Coming around from the rabbitry, I was horrified. What if she called rescue on us because of how the rabbits were being kept? I quickly welcomed her and took her around to show her the brand-new, nice, clean home the bunnies were about to move into. But, knowing that there are people who believe that rabbits shouldn't even be kept outside, I didn't know if that would help. She did seem impressed, though, but I was still nervous, especially when she asked us what we were going to do with the babies.
Well, I replied, the kids are raising rabbits for 4H. Not really a complete fabrication, since they are going to join 4H here shortly because of the rabbits. She seemed satisfied, and animal rescue hasn't shown up. I don't know that she would call them. But I don't know that she wouldn't. What sort of animal rescue people do we have here? People who take only animals that obviously are being abused or neglected? Or people who take animals who aren't being raised the way they think they should be raised? Are there groups around here who, upon hearing of a meat rabbit herd, go to steal them in the middle of the night? I don't know. If the neighborhood homeowners' association learned we were raising meat rabbits, what would they do? I don't know.
I am not against animal rescue, and I hope it doesn't sound like that. We bought Pearl from a farm that takes in rescue animals. They had a couple of horses that had been brought to them a short time prior that were malnourished and mistreated. The owners of the farm were surprised that the one mare would allow our kids to rub her nose, since she normally didn't let anyone get anywhere near her.
Like you said, Brody, the few bad ones out there make us afraid that the ones in our area might be bad. Probably an unreasonable fear, but I wouldn't be so concerned if we lived on a little farm in the country (someday...
).
Whoa... I think I went seriously
fftopic: :nono: ... Sorry, Ann!