Attacked by dogs......

Darla and another bunny ended up at a municipal shelter after the owner.....apparently deciding to forgo the expense of veterinary treatment.....relinquished them to the shelter. Apparently the two rabbits had escaped from their enclosure and encountered one or more dogs. Darla recovered from her wounds (the other bunny died) and room was found for her at Heartland Rabbit Rescue....otherwise she was going to be killed.

Darla right after arriving at Heartland Rabbit Rescue

Notice the "double" chin, or pouch of skin hanging from her neck. This is often indicative of a bunny having given birth to multiple litters of babies. In other words Darla most likely came from a "breeder"....someone contributing to the overpopulation of domesticated rabbits so they can make money. No matter that thousands upon thousands of unwanted rabbits are killed at animal shelters each year, these folks want money, rabbit animals are considered to be property and we human animals can do (with impunity) pretty much anything we want to do with them.

This next photo shows the tattoo that was found in her left ear...another telltale sign that Darla was in the control of a "breeder".

Darla...left ear tattoo

Darla is a member of the "breed" of rabbits called Rex, the principal characteristic associated with a bunny like her is the texture of her fur. It is very short and astonishingly soft...feeling a lot like air filled velvet.

Rexes are very much the "velveteen rabbits" of the bunny folk.

Darla is equipped with a major pair of ears, she almost looks like a Jack Rabbit, they are so large.

She was a bit skittish when she first arrived but seems to be settling into her new home quite well. She has become very friendly and almost always asks for attention whenever a human animal is near.

She is not shy about asking to be petted and will push quite hard with her head in my hand to get some stroking and caressing. Her fur coat has one of the most wonderful textures I have ever felt and it is a very soothing experience to softly rub her head and back. Fun both for her and for me....reciprocal pleasure is hard to beat.

I did a little web-surfing to look into "breeders" and found that we human animals begin early to learn that living beings are property.

May 22, 2008-Tattoed 9 bunn-bunns.

May 26, 2008 Re-tattoed buns, this time we rubbed extra ink in really good over the tattoo punctures. Hopefully we got it deep enough this time.....

I copied the above writing from a website apparently maintained by a little girl who is in 4-H and appears to be anywhere from 9 to 12 years old.  She also writes on her website:

Think small fuzzy bunnies!
This is the home of Annie's 4-H rabbit project.
The historic chicken house on our
Oklahoma Centennial Farm has been converted into Annie's Rabbitry.

My Goal: To raise lovable, quality show rabbits.

All sounds terrific, great and wonderful right? Teaching children, encouraging children...yadda, yadda, yadda. What they are being taught is that rabbit people are property, you can mutilate them (cut their ears with no anesthesia, then rub ink in the cuts...tattooing), breed them, sell them and/or their babies...they are yours to do with what you want. For instance the little girl later writes:

Sept. 18, 2008- K.K. got 1st runner up at State! Justice died of wool block, and I am so sad. <:( I sold all my for sale bunnys this week right after I put up new photos.

She is sad about Justice dying, but sells other rabbits. When I read stuff like this, I substitute the year (think 1808 instead of 2008) and the living being, think human slave instead of rabbit slave. Instead of rabbit animals for her 4-H project, she is raising human animals....they are property and she can do what she wants to with them. Tattoo them, breed them, sell them and/or their children. 

She is doing this in conjunction with a national organization called 4-H, this group tell us on their website:

4-H is a positive youth development organization that empowers young people to reach their full potential......

 The indoctrination that all animals except human animals are property (and you only have to step back 7 or 8 generations to discover that human animals are property too) starts early, is pervasive and thorough and children are rapidly socialized out of notions that any animal has a right to their own life.

Children are taught to ignore the pain (tattooing is extremely painful for the rabbit...as it would be for anyone else) of living beings, taught that living beings are objects to be manipulated, controlled, "bred", sold, bought, locked up, exploited.....and on and on.........so young people can reach their "full potential".

Tips for "breeders" abound on the internet. For instance at this website the activity of "culling" is addressed:

As you produce rabbits, your goal will be to select the quality rabbits from your litters and cull the rest.  There is that dreaded word 'cull', which so many think means 'kill'.  Culling means removing rabbits from your herd, often by way of sales or other means.....

Ah, the gift of language. This writer obviously is squeamish about acknowledging what "cull" means when they write about it....the squeamishness doesn't change what they do, just what they say about it. Remember, "other means" covers a multitude of options.

Another "breeder" is a little less afflicted with euphemism-itis, they write:

As a breeder of show rabbits, I cannot keep every single rabbit that is born in my barn.  I keep only the ones that are show quality.  I try to pet out as many as I can (will talk about that later) but there are so many people selling pet bunnies, it’s not possible to sell all your non-show quality rabbits as pets.  Luckily we have a place here that actually raises snakes, all kinds and sizes from the tiniest ones to the huge Boa Constrictors!  We raise rabbits, they raise snakes!  The larger snakes can eat a very large rabbit!   We take our rabbits that we don’t want to keep and can’t sell as pets to this place.  We get paid for them!  I don’t know how they feed the snakes and I don’t want to know......

Just as long as he gets paid, he doesn't want to know.......good isn't it that he is "sensitive".

I am told some folks take a baby rabbit that doesn't look quite right (wrong coloring, etc) and simply smash their heads up against a wall or some other method of killing...that is what "cull" often means. At Lagomorphs.com they write:

Culling is a euphemism for killing the babies who did not turn out as desired. Breeders usually cull any rabbit who is actually physically deformed. Many also cull those with treatable problems like malocclusion or those who are the weakest. Some breeders cull a rabbit just because he has “imperfect” markings for the breed!

Ah, youth of America, if he isn't marked right....kill him (or her).

Well, Darla made it through the cull, survived to adulthood, had babies, escaped, was attacked and injured by a dog, ended up in a shelter that was preparing to kill her and now she is at Heartland.

She is a reminder of the costs involved in young people reaching their "full potential", costs that Darla and her babies paid....not the parents of the youth or the youth themselves. She is a reminder that lives are considered to be property by most human animals....and what a horror that is for the "property".

She is a reminder that sometimes, just sometimes, our victims get lucky and end up in a place where she....if she doesn't find a forever home...can live out her life with as much comfort and care and love as the folks out at HRR can provide.

Breeder....is a euphemism....for someone that is practicing disgusting activities for their own profit....at the expense of innocent lives. Darla thinks breeders suck........I concur.

Never, ever, ever, ever support in any way, shape or form the activities of "breeders", no matter what kind of life they are "breeding"....bunny, dog, cat, chicken, cow, sheep, etc...... Breeders are parasites that steal the lives of others for their own profit.

I have no words to adequately express my repugnance concerning these behaviors. Neither does Darla.


 

County fairs and animal mutilation.......

In much of this country (and others) the end of summer signals the onset of numerous events called "fairs". Apparently these originated in pre-industrial times when agriculture and autumn harvests were insinuated into the daily life of most people. A celebration of some sort was associated with the harvesting of crops and the presumed presence of enough food for the humans to subsist over the non-growing season of the winter and the growing season but no food harvest months of the spring and into the early summer.

I grew up in a farming/ranching area of rural southwestern Oklahoma and "fairs" and "fat stock shows" were a pretty important facet of the annual progression of the seasons. There are organizations devoted to inculcating children into the culture of the farm/ranch, the most prominent of those being 4-H and FFA. One of the more important cultural transmissions of values that occurs in these organizations is that animals are property and just about anything can be done to them in the name of efficiency and profit.

The FFA (Future Farmers of America) has an especially prominent role in the schools and lives of students in the rural and small town areas as they age into high school. Back then this was an exclusively male organization. Classes were taken in school and various "educational" forays onto working farms and ranches were part of the curriculum. These "field trips" usually consisted of providing unpaid labor to the farmers/ranchers.

I remember traveling in the back of a pick-up to some farm and wrestling with baby cows and baby pigs....wrestling with them because we were being taught how to castrate them. No anesthesia, just hold them down while they were screaming and bellowing and terrified and....with a hopefully sharp knife blade cut into the scrotal sack, pull out the testicles and cut the tissue attached to the testicle and dab on an antiseptic (or not) and release the terrified, injured, bleeding baby. Joking and laughter about the severed testicles was all part of the experience, "mountain oysters", etc.

The social pressure was considerable on the boys to participate in FFA. Once you reached 9th grade you were subtly and not so subtly encouraged to sign up each year for the FFA elective. One of the only areas of minor pride I have about my high school times was that my best friend and I refused to join FFA our senior year. This was heresy and unheard of in the history of the little school and some serious arm-twisting from the school faculty involved was brought to bear. We resisted (how I don't really know) and completed that last year being the only boys ever (as far as I know) to not be in the FFA our senior year.

I went out to the local county "fair" this past month to see how the animals were being treated there. I knew it would be painful and depressing and disgusting and.......it was.

To the left is a photo of one of the mutilated sheep on exhibition. Notice the rear of the sheep, no tail. Apparently this is a new "fashion", instead of cutting off part of the tail (euphemistically termed "docking") now the whole tail is hacked off.

There are various justifications advanced for either practice that you can find here and here.

Suffice it to say that if sheep had not been interfered with by humans and not bred to grow too much hair (called wool)...no problem with a sheep's tail would exist.

But, as always, human interference creates a problem and resolution of the problem involves doing something painful and grotesque and disgusting to the animal involved.

If the sheep's tail (because of the excessively lengthy hair) collects feces which causes flies to lay eggs there which results in maggots growing......well....cut off the tail. No matter that the mutilation injures the sheep and creates a much greater likelihood of rectal prolapse.

This is what we teach the children in 4-H and FFA. This is what we teach the children that attend the "fair". Mutilate the animal, they are yours to do with what you wish. We don't tell the children that the problem with too much hair was caused by humans in the first place. We tell the children that mutilating the sheep is "for its own good" because the mutilation will reduce the chance of maggots growing on the sheep. What is even more ludicrous is that most humans do not understand that humans caused the problem to begin with.

To the right is the face of one of the victims. I felt and still feel shame and sorrow as I look at her eyes. What wondrous beings we humans are.....we maim and enslave and show off our victims as if they were testament to our worthiness and skill. And we award prizes and honors to the mutilators and animal abusers that have the most "attractive" victims.

There was also a "petting zoo" at the event. Here we teach our children that other animals, usually baby animals are "cute" and there for our pleasure and profit. Often the animals shown are not well cared for and exist only to make a profit for the owner. We don't tell the children this, no, the adults point and oh and ah and smile and tell lies (lies the adults often believe too) to the children.  Meanwhile the animals suffer and despair and look back at us with empty eyes, having gone away somewhere inside....as we all do when we are forced into situations we hate but must endure.

And they lay in prison, guilty of no crime except that of being themselves. And we bring our little ones to gawk and point and "learn about the animals".

And we inadvertently say volumes about ourselves, our vapidness, our cruelty, our utter and total debacle of failing to participate as wanted and responsible and caring citizens of the community of life.

Thus we teach our young ones to not care, to be blind to obvious cruelty, to slavery, to exploitation. We teach them and we twist them and we make liars and insensitive torturers and louts out of them. We educate our children.

At the county fair.