What did you eat for Easter dinner? If you ate at Café Boa, you probably ate rabbit to celebrate the Christian holiday (or the Easter Bunny, whichever you prefer).
The ironic meal angered the community’s rabbit lovers. According to an article in The Arizona Republic, many people were displeased with the thought of someone cooking up their pet for dinner.
Doreen O’Connell, a volunteer with a rabbit rescue organization said in the article, “like any pet owner, when you see that on a menu you think how could somebody take my sweet pet and slaughter it and eat it?”
According to the article, Café Boa received over 100 messages about their rabbit dinner, including a phone call wishing the chef a slow, painful death and the assertion that he’d burn in hell.
While I applaud the rabbit community on their organized uproar, minus the death call, I question whether they’ve considered the lives of all the other animals that are routinely killed and cooked.
Why are rabbits so special? What about chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, elk or deer?
Heck, why are pets so special?
There is a flaw in the logic in some of these rabbit lovers. Does opposition against rabbit killing exist because they’re cute and soft? The Café Boa rabbits are “wild,” not domesticated, but probably still look like they’d love a good cuddle.
The common perception of chickens, on the other hand, is that they peck at things and poop everywhere. Their fur isn’t velvety smooth and they are thought of more as a cheap food source than an animal that experiences fear and pain.
The aesthetic quality of an animal is not a basis on which we should make decisions about consuming them. Just as it is wrong to persecute humans on the basis of their outward appearance, so it is for non-human animals.
What about pet rabbits? People don’t want to see their pets killed and eaten because they feel connected to them. That’s understandable.
But pigs and cows, for example, shouldn’t be deprived of their lives any less than rabbits, but I don’t see public outrage on their behalf.
Why aren’t rabbit lovers upset about all the other animals they don’t have as pets? There is no good reason for preferring one species or even one kind (domesticated over wild) to another. Why does one lucky animal get special treatment?
Shouldn’t we be compassionate to all animals, not just the ones that remind us of our pets?
Those who consider themselves animal lovers but only protect the cute ones should look deeper and fight for all animals, even the ugly ones.
Reach Becky at rrubens1@asu.edu
