Animal Writings

"The sleeper on the standing script is rabbit, chopped into bite-size pieces, marinated in an herbed batter and fried so that the skin is crisp and the meat retains its juices. The entree is served as a golden heap with fried vegetables (artichokes in season, zucchini and red onions right now) and accompanied by an orange-brightened mayonnaise. The dip isn't traditional Italian, but who cares? It makes a nice match."

Dear Ms. Howell:

On December 31, food critic Tom Sietsema reviewed the restaurant Bebo Trattoria da Roberto Donna. The article included a picture of a plate of fried rabbit, which Mr. Sietsema apparently found very tasty.

This is my bunny Annie. She is the type of rabbit that is used for meat. I'm not sure I could tell her apart from millions of other white rabbits, but she has a personality all her own. I took her in because her family no longer wanted her. It was a typical bad home, where she was kept in a small cage and harassed by unsupervised children. She had to sit in her own urine and poop, which discolored her beautiful fur. At first she was very skittish, but now she enjoys being petted, as you see. She goes nicely in her litterbox and enjoys chewing on hay and toys. She tooth-purrs now; that's a sound rabbits make when they're happy. 24 hours a day, she has room to run and hop in what used to be my dining room.

Unfortunately, the baby bunny Mr. Sietsema ate at Bebo was not so lucky. Before she ended up dead on a plate, she almost certainly spent her whole life in a tiny cage like this one:



I can't even imagine how hellish it must be to spend your entire life confined to a cage like this, but this treatment is typical on today's "factory farms." For those of us who grew up believing that good people are kind to animals, it comes as a complete shock to learn—sorry to break this to you, kids—that the animals we eat are not mindless lumps. They have strong emotions and needs. In another time, these animals used their legs to run, they found food and shelter, they had friends and families, every day was different, and they knew what happiness was. On factory farms, their whole life is frustration, confinement, boredom, misery, pain, and a gruesome death. Whatever their most striking attribute—cuteness, intelligence, beauty, strength, gentleness—it doesn't save them. The restaurant is waiting for its delivery.

Because of factory farming, astronomical numbers animals are suffering, and they are suffering more intensely than ever before in history. They are killed very young because that is when their flesh tastes the best. Some people think everything is fine as long as the animals were raised "humanely" before they were killed. Yet when human children are murdered, we are horrified that their lives were brutally cut short. We don't say how lucky they were to be "free-range" while they were alive.

I love food as much as the next well-fed American. Honest. But as George Bernard Shaw said, "Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends." This is not about hunger or nutrition or survival. It is about eating for fun. There are plenty of fun things to eat that have nothing to do with tortured, dead animals. It is more important to be compassionate than to tickle every possible taste bud.

Come to think of it, I could tell my bunny Annie from all the others. She's the one who would come running when I held out my hand.

Visit One

Under metal overhangs, the rabbits were housed in two doubled-side rows of wire holding cages. The stocking densities ranged from six to eleven rabbits per cage. Each cage was no wider than 1.5 feet. The vast majority of the cages had a high number of rabbits enclosed. As the stocking density increased, the rabbits had greater difficulty moving around. There was a strong ammonia odor from the rabbits' urine and an accumulation of fecal waste below the cages. The bottoms of the cages were layered with cobwebs and rabbit hair. Rabbits in the cages were observed sneezing. The wiring of the cages was corroded. Some of the cages were poorly rigged—denying rabbits stable, level footing.

Visit Two

Located next to the holding enclosures, rabbits were left in the property truck's multi-tiered cages overnight exposed to rain. Nearly half of the cages on the live-haul truck were full. The rabbits were without food or water. The rabbits on the higher levels of the truck cages were defecating and urinating on the rabbits caged below. The rabbits on the truck could not moving around or lie comfortably. There were several loose rabbits circling the truck as well. In the nearby holding cages, high stocking densities of dirty holding cages were observed along with a pungent ammonia odor. A vast majority of the rabbits' pelts were stained by urine and cage rust.

Photo: East Bay Animal Advocates