Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?

A bunny appeared a few yards from a picnic in the park I attended with vegan friends (I love how they don't judge me for being a carnivore, and they prepare such good food!). One of the women there does great work: she rescues poultry as well as abandoned and abused goats and other animals, and supports them through the sale of healthy, cruelty free eggs. Those creatures eat better than many of us.

Cheryl looked at the black-and-white bunny and said, "That's not a wild rabbit; someone abandoned it." Immediately, three or four people went off in hot pursuit of the bunny, which didn't seem to be suffering; it had been enjoying the grass and sunshine and perhaps, from afar, the admiring glances of two little girls. Naturally, Bun-Bun ran away from the well-meaning rescuers, nowhere to be found.

Several among us surmised that the rabbit was going to be eaten by a coyote. That hadn't occurred to me, as prior to that I didn't even know we had coyotes in Santa Cruz, but I got concerned for Mr. Whiskers right along with the rest...rabbits not being one of the species I eat myself.

Finally one woman, who had not joined in the chase, said, "If the coyote gets the rabbit, it's meant to be. Coyotes need to eat too." This was no consolation to those of use who saw the rabbit as a poor, defenseless, domesticated creature who could not take care of itself.

When we got ready to pack up, the same woman put out some leftover raw veggies for the bunny. Fattening it up for the coyotes, perhaps.

So I got to questioning: why is it okay and natural for the coyotes to get the wild rabbits, but not the domesticated one? What were my stressful thoughts? Where they true?

*The bunny was abandoned.
*It won't make it in the wild.
*Coyotes are violent predators. (Hmm. Nice turnaround for me.)
*People shouldn't abandon animals.
*The rabbit will not live a full life.

For all we know, the rabbit is doing better than those of us who may be losing sleep over it...the little beastie not knowing that it's a tragedy for a bunny to be let loose in a beautiful park.


©2007 by Carol L. Skolnick; all rights reserved.