Deep Roots: Animal Rights Blog

Easter is coming up this Sunday. While for many this is a time to get together, run around the yard, and celebrate, for rabbits it is a bit of a dreaded holiday. Many people think it is cute to give their children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews a baby bunny for Easter. I can’t say I blame you. Bunnies are cute, and kids love cute bunnies. Unfortunately, as the House Rabbit Society points out, rabbits and children don’t really mix:

Children like a companion they can hold, and cuddle. That’s why stuffed animals are so popular. Rabbits are not passive and cuddly. They are ground-loving creatures who feel frightened and insecure when held and restrained. The result of a short-sighted purchase of an Easter rabbit: the child loses interest, and the rabbit ends up neglected or abandoned.

Thousands of rabbits find their way to shelters after the Easter holiday. Others will spend their lives neglected in small cages. This is no life for an animal that loves to hop, run, and graze in fields. We can do better for rabbits and children.

Perhaps equally as disturbing is the fact that these rabbits have never known what it means to live in the wild. Morrissey has just lent his music to the international animal rights group, Four Paws, for their campaign against factory farming rabbits. While many of these rabbits are bred to eat or for experimentation, others are bred to sell as pets. As Four Paws explains:

Factory farmed caged rabbits have limited space to lie stretched out or sit up on their hind legs. The rabbits are forced to live in cramped and barren conditions. It is not uncommon for bone disorders and foot inflammations to develop, as well as other excruciating conditions. Farmed rabbits may develop neurotic behaviors to relieve the stress caused by their unnatural living conditions.

For this Easter holiday, why not celebrate by working towards a better world for rabbits. Shouldn’t the Easter Bunny be free to hop around the world, instead of locked up in a cage?