A few news articles you may or may not wish to peruse.   

Teachers using rabbits to help folk understand where their food comes from.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/11/13/3485128_nampa-biology-teacher-slaughters.html?sp=/99/1687/&rh=1

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/2014/11/13/rabbit-class-killed/18989771/
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2014/nov/13/teacher-kills-skins-rabbit-class/

Rabbits as food?
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-humane-association-ceos-of-major-food-organizations-animal-welfare-pioneers-and-top-chefs-go-to-capitol-hill-to-urge-americans-to-set-a-humane-table-for-the-holidays-and-support-humane-farm-practices-282632671.html  ""Animal welfare is not a new concept to America's farmers and ranchers – it is a responsibility they have taken seriously for centuries," said Smith. "But recognizing our society is now three to four generations removed from the farm and wants to know more about where their food comes from and how it's produced, the animal agriculture community recognized the need to demonstrate their care and commitment to their animals in a more concrete way. It's important to recognize that farm animal welfare is complex because how farm animals are raised impacts other important factors, such as food safety, the environment and costs, as well. It's not in the animals' – or the farmers' – best interest to make decisions about housing or space based on emotion, but rather on science and with a full understanding of how any change will impact these other important issues.  That's why the Alliance has long advocated that science-based animal care programs be implemented on farms and ranches of all sizes and types – because it's the right thing to do for the animals and the best thing to provide consumers the assurances they need."     

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/eating-rabbit

http://tacade.com/health-benefits-rabbit-meat/  found it very interesting in this article where it says that the rabbit meat is very good for those undergoing chemotherapy

http://rabbitmeat.webs.com/

http://grapevine.is/news/2014/11/16/rabbit-meat-is-for-gentlemen/
"Birgit Kositzke, who raises the rabbits, described the meat as “gentlemen’s food” for gourmet palates. Her booth featured rack of rabbit and rabbit legs for sale, and she made a point to emphasise that the animals are raised ethically."

http://metronews.ca/voices/ricardo-cooks/1212404/ricardo-cooks-are-you-game-to-try-something-new/

Animal Abuse?  Animal Welfare?
http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-offers-assistance-local-governments-drafting-rules-curb-animal-abuse

http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_27050767/eddy-county-animal-ordinance-be-voted.   So dogs can't be tired safely in a yard or out front a business while nipping in for a quick purchase?   No animals can be sold where there is a public road?

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/new-york-ag-puts-bite-puppy-mills-blog-entry-1.2008065   “New Yorkers value their pets as companions and are entitled to know that they came from sources that treated them in a safe and healthy manner. By working with municipalities, we will help ensure that New Yorkers can be confident that their cats and dogs are healthy when they purchase them and that they were raised in a safe place.”

http://www.thepinelog.com/opinion/article_fb1cee10-6a16-11e4-b7af-dbb967f233f1.html

Caring for your rabbits
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/caring-for-your-pregnant-rabbit-ze0z1411zhur.aspx#axzz3J1luzoE3

A settlement between all parties in the RICO case against HSUS and other animal rights groups means that we may never know if “Racketeering” could be added to the list of offenses HSUS has committed in the name of its causes.

To read more, go to this page.

HSUS paid an employee to lie about animal care.  PAID THEM to LIE!!!   I suppose I shouldn't be surprised... but ick!

The original case, filed under the Endangered Species Act, was thrown out for being considered frivolous, and the resulting lawsuit, covered under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), was filed because of the payments made to the plaintiff and the concealment of those payments.

Other sources for your reading:

FELD.The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), along with their co-defendants, have paid Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus, $15.75 million to settle cases stemming from a lawsuit they brought against Ringling Bros.® over the care of its Asian elephants. This historic settlement payment to Feld Entertainment ends nearly 14 years of litigation between the parties.


NAIA official Blog.  Great news today: HSUS and several co-defendants have paid Feld Entertainment $15.75 million for their involvement in a “frivolous,” “vexatious,” “groundless and unreasonable” case brought against Feld Entertainment and to settle the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case brought against them.

Where Have All The Pet Stores Gone?
by Jacquelyn Fogel

We have been duped. Dog breeders have been used by the Animal Activists in their war on domestic pets. About 25 years ago a small core of Animal Activists who are now in control of all the major national animal rights organizations forged a plan, and we unwittingly helped them out. They started a campaign to close down all pet stores that had live animals in them, knowing full well that the demand for the puppies in these facilities would remain high. Dog breeders helped them. We railed against the nasty pet stores and their supplies of unworthy dogs. We offered up our own well-bred puppies as alternatives, even though we could never meet the demand the public has for puppies. We thought we were taking the high road, and embraced the new animal rights-leaning shelters that wanted to shut down the pet stores. We even put statements into our “codes of ethics” that said we would never allow our puppies to be sold in a pet store. We felt holy.

Never mind that these stores were usually independently owned by small, local business owners who fed their families on the profits from these stores. Never mind that most of the puppies were purchased locally from breeders in our surrounding communities. Never mind that these stores were all regulated locally and federally and at least in theory, inspected by USDA and local health departments. Never mind that these were all legal, profit-making, tax-paying businesses that bought supplies from local vendors and sold to local residents. Never mind that these business owners supported local service organizations and donated to local churches and charities. Never mind that the public still wanted to buy puppies and we hobby breeders were all but invisible to them as we guarded our precious bloodlines from falling into unscrupulous hands. We agreed with the animal activists that these puppies were unhealthy, and the owners of these stores should be punished and put out of business

So where does the public go to buy their puppies now? Pet ownership is at an all-time high, and many of us hobby breeders still have trouble selling our pure bred puppies for what they are actually worth. I’ll tell you where the public is getting their pets from. They are now going to the retail shelters and rescues to find their pets. The small, local breeders that supplied local pet stores are being replaced by commercial kennels far away and invisible. The poorly operated puppy farms are still breeding dogs, they have merely gone further underground. The transportation of puppies from huge kennels and shelters in the south and from places outside this country has ballooned into a multi-million dollar mega-business. Now here’s the real kicker. Most of these retailers of puppies now claim non-profit status. They don’t pay taxes to support their communities any more. They slap the title “rescue” onto what they are doing, and suddenly they are self-righteous saviors of poor mistreated animals rather than brokers and transporters of poorly manufactured products specifically bred to produce a profit. And the public who is “rescuing” these dogs feels holy.
Follow the money. If you ever need to know why something is happening the way it is, and your common sense is telling you the logical signs just don’t add up, follow the money. By shifting the sales of pets from regulated, independent, tax-paying businesses to largely clandestine, non-profit suppliers the animal activists have brilliantly co-opted the very enemy we thought we were fighting against. Realistically all shelters should have been working to put themselves out of business – not the pet stores. They should have done such good work educating the public how to be responsible dog owners that over time there would no longer be a critical need for their services. Obviously that didn’t happen. Here in Wisconsin we recently built a $6.5 million facility that has to have semi-loads of dogs shipped in regularly to keep it stocked. And they can turn-around (sell the entire inventory)their product in about 48 hours. That certainly makes them enough cash to keep the doors open and the lights on. And they don’t pay taxes.

How about this overwhelming push to spay and neuter all dogs? Wow! What a money maker that has become! Now a local individual or their neighbors and friends cannot morally create their own pets because it is unethical to keep their dogs intact. They have to go back to the retail shelter stores to purchase another one. The animal activists have even co-opted the veterinary community into believing that all pets should be spayed and neutered, when, in fact, there is no clinical evidence to support that this is best for every animal. Just now some studies are coming out that say, in fact, the opposite is true. I don’t know why the veterinary community has allowed themselves to be so coopted, unless I follow the money. As my own vet points out, she would be out of business tomorrow if all of the mixed breeds were as healthy as people claim they are. Common sense should be telling us the same thing. If heterogeneity was the answer to perfect health, then humans would be the healthiest species on the face of the planet. And we are not. Genetics work pretty much the same across species.

Does anyone think outside the propaganda anymore? I ask people regularly when they last saw a stray dog in their neighborhood. In northern states it is rare. If a dog is found loose, more often than not, it is a runaway not a stray. Most of the dogs in shelters are surrenders, not strays. And who is surrendering those dogs? Could it be the same population of people who wanted to rescue the ill-tempered, unhealthy puppies they saw in shelters? Everyone wants to be a savior – until it gets expensive, dangerous or just too hard. Then they return the untrained, older dog that now has even more serious issues to a shelter that re-sells it to someone else. When I get a puppy back as an older dog, I usually place the dog in a new home for nothing. And I have to spend time and advertising money screening the new potential owners. The revolving door of sell, surrender, re-sell can become quite profitable if a shelter gets the same amount of money each time they sell the same dog.
This is how far out-of-whack things have gotten in this country. Some time ago I was nominated by a member in one of my national breed clubs to receive a breeder of the year award. The person who actually won the award is a fine breeder in the UK and she does a great job with her dogs. But the primary reason I was eliminated as a contender for the breeder of the year award was because I do not support “rescue,” and had actually written articles about what mixed-breed rescue has become in this country. Silly me. I thought the award was about being a breeder. My dogs don’t go into rescue programs because I take them back or rehome them if at any point in their lives they cannot be kept by their owners. I have started a non-profit, Keep Your Pets, Inc, dedicated to keeping families in crisis together with their pets, but that is not good enough. Apparently it is now not even politically correct for breeders to disparage the concept of rescue as it has evolved in this country. I don’t rescue dogs; I breed and sell them, and sometimes rehome them. And there is nothing wrong with that model.

I am a business owner in a Capitalist, free-market economy. My primary business is boarding and grooming pets, but I also sell well-bred puppies. And I spend a lot of money to produce and market those puppies. I don’t get any tax breaks. I don’t get free dog food or free veterinary care. I don’t ask for my supplies to be donated, I purchase them from local vendors. It’s a good model, and it works for all products, not just automobiles and refrigerators. We get so caught up in the “give a puppy a good home” sob stories that we forget that our dogs are a product, too. I adore my dogs. My children often said I loved the dogs more than I loved them (totally untrue). But it does take a lot of time, wisdom and money to produce healthy, well-socialized purebred puppies. We should not feel guilty about wanting to be compensated for the time it takes us to produce a superior product. By refusing to use the language of commerce to talk about pets, we have somehow placed them in a different logical spot in our brain.

The current suppliers and sellers of puppies are not fooled. They are very clear about the economics of producing, transporting and selling millions of poorly bred and cheaply produced dogs to unwitting customers for a lot of money. They use the language of adoption and rescue, but they follow the economics of a free enterprise, Capitalist system. They may call themselves “non-profit”, but they are making millions of dollars from the distribution and sales of these puppies. Only we hobby breeders have been foolish enough to let our emotional ties to our dogs get in the way of understanding this economic model.

It’s all about supply and demand – and ultimately the demise of domestic pet ownership. Now that shelters and rescues are the last retail places to produce and sell pets, how easy will it be for them to suddenly “expose” the source of all their dogs as nasty puppy farms. Is it too far a stretch to then imagine that they will try to manipulate the emotions they have already sensitized to simply quit demanding these miserable creatures? How better to put someone out of business than to quit demanding their product? Right now, in the animal activist world, it is immoral to own a well-bred purebred, or an unspayed or unneutered dog. If the next step is to say it is immoral to own a dog produced by a puppy farm, they are dangerously close to making all pet ownership immoral. If you don’t think this is the real agenda, then you just are not paying attention.

Personally, I don’t think people will allow themselves to be so completely manipulated by these animal activist evangelists. The general public still loves to own a dog even if they now prefer to call it an adoption. But 15 years ago I would not have foreseen a population that preferred to “rescue” a dog rather than buy one from a good breeder if they could afford it. I also did not see the demise of the local for-profit retail pet stores being replaced by non-profit retail shelters. That change happened much faster than I thought it could. Where have all the retail pet stores gone? We helped to put them out of business, never stopping to realize that we were the next targets in a well-planned campaign to end all pet ownership. It’s time for dog breeders to become activists in support of all people who want to legally breed and work with animals. The activists are picking us off one group at a time. Yesterday the pet stores and circuses, today the Carriage Horses and pig farms, tomorrow the hobby breeders, and the day after that, all breeders of all animals. It’s time to choose sides and get active. There is more to aspire to than the next purple ribbon – a way of life is at stake.

Appeared in Showsight Magazine, March 2014, Volume 22, #8
 

Here's a good read for you.
Something in here to think about where you own pets or you breed them.  :)

Check it out here.

There's been a story on the rabbit boards lately about a fellow who had his rabbits stolen, and then returned with the hold out of one rabbit named Roger.

Well it seems the person holding on to Roger fell in love with him immediately and didn't want him returned for fear of what might happen to him.   But they were able to work things out and thusly Roger was returned home.

Now theft is theft.   And the folks who stole the rabbits should be punished for it EVEN THOUGH they returned them.    The lady holding on to Roger should have returned him immediately once she knew he was stolen property.. but animals being animals she got attached and therefore tried to purchase him (which would be an understandable action).

Me personally... someone steals my rabbit I'd get my back up...but if they offered me good money for him it's be like okay...He's ALL YOURS.     But that's me, and my breeding program hasn't quite gotten to where I want it be yet so it's not the end of the world for me if a rabbit is sold.

I DON"T like theft.  I do not like people thinking that because they are "animal liberators" or "animal rights" or "animal rescue" types that it is OKAY to steal.  It is NOT okay to steal regardless of how you coach it.

But the query is: how does one who breeds livestock and sells it or eats it deal with animal rights folks.

1. Know if how you keep your animals is in keeping with standard cares of practice for your species.

2. Do you treat your animals well?   Do other folks know you treat them well?

3. Do you know your rights when it comes to keeping animals where you are?   Do you skirt the law?

4. Do you treat your opponents with respect and care?   Do you mind your  language and your thoughts (as your thoughts will colour how you write)?

5. Know your stuff.

• If you breed for show.. WHY do you do so?   What's the point?   What do you do with your overstock, or the less than appropriate animals?
•  If you breed for the pet market can you show that there really is no over pet population for your species of animal?     What do you do with those that don't sell?   Do you have a return policy?
• If you breed for consumption WHY?   Can you show the benefits of eating your own food?   Do you know the studies involved it?   If breeding for animal consumption do you know what may or may not affect the animals you are feeding?

There are folks,  a MYRIAD of differing opinions out there.    Some based on fact, and some well,... not so much.  But they are opinions none-the-less.
If you know your animal that you breed and you know your reasons for doing what you do it goes a long way.   If you treat people respectfully, that too goes a long way in getting both sides of an issue to simply listen to each other.

This post spurred me to actually write a bit about what I think.

The whole situation with Debe Bell and her confiscated rabbits and the pictures posted both by her as well as by those who are against her have spawned all sorts of conversation across the rabbit world.

Those who are horrified at how her animals were kept, those who are not horrified at how they were kept and wondering why people would be.

Personally...I'm withholding judgement.  I disliked what I saw because I know that things can be better.  I also know that the build up I saw on some of those cages takes time to develop.  I also know that sometimes life gets beyond a person sometimes and things can slip drastically.  I know these things and I do not know all the particularities of her exact situation.  Therefore I withhold judgement on her.

BUT many people are not.  They are all over the place for, against, indifferent, angry, disgusted and much more (and much less).   But what we are is DIVIDED.

And everyone knows that people who are divided are much more easily defeated.

So for those who say she deserves whatever she gets ... consider this...

1. does she really?   Do you know ALL the facts?

2. what if the situation were turned around...would YOU deserve it?

3. Does one deserve to lose their hobby without being proven guilty of wrongdoing?  For that IS what has happened here.

And if she does deserve losing her animals...are you aware of how much ammunition and power that gives the Animal Rights people to come after YOU next?   Seriously think about this for a moment.

Every time the animal rights people win, they gain power.

1. They gain power because they divide us, they make us think...ah...just another bad breeder, not realizing that painting one bad breeder means so many other people (bad or not) are branded with same paintbrush.

2. They gain power with the uneducated who link puppy mills, factory chickens, and rabbit breeders all with the same brush.   We are all breeding our animals ERGO we must be horrid people.

Dog breeders fight it, Cat breeders fight it and so forth.     You raise cattle...well.. you must be one of those horrid feed lot people.   And that's exactly how we are painted.

3. Look at all the free publicity their "good" cause on behalf of the animals is getting them.   and people don't stop to think... if the dog/cat/rabbit/snake people are put out of business, where exactly is our next pet coming from?

4. and here's the answer ... Adopt from a shelter.   you know..those shelters that written laws give permissions to that joe average isn't allowed to have. There are thousands upon thousands of animals out there. adopt from them.     but where do those shelter animals come from?   Ask yourself that.  If the breeders are put out of business where exactly will those shelter animals come from?  and thence...where will your child's next pet come from?   or your agility partner or ?????

If we are divided and thinking that people deserve whatever they get, then we are easy prey.   Just institute bill after bill after bill making it illegal to breed, sell, own, work or whatever.    Anything to do with animals...tough luck!

I will defend the right of anyone to raise and feed and breed their animals.  EVEN the spider people (as much as I HATE spiders) I'll defend your right to breed them because if I don't... we are divided and therefore easy prey to those who brand us as horrid despicable people.

I WILL NOT defend your right to do so if you deliberately mistreat your animals.  I'll tell you to sell or kill 'em or give them away to someone who is knowledgeable.   But unless you are being neglectful or cruel... don't knock on my door asking me to help put them out of business.

Who's knocking on your door?