Sacriledge!

"Soylent Green is people, PEOPLE" Charleton Heston in Soylent Green

Yes it seems that some person's pet rabbit died and in what she calls a touching a life affirming tribute, she decided to cook and eat the late rabbit. This would be significantly less disturbing if the bereaved chef hadn't posted pictures of the bunny alive and IN A SKILLET.

As much as I say, yuck, the responses to the posting are almost as frightening as the post itself. Certainly there is nothing wrong with eating a rabbit, although I would be concerned about eating a rabbit that "naturally died." I'd want to make sure it was safe to eat and not infected with mad rabbit disease or something else equally dangerous. But really aside from the health aspect people have eaten "pets" for years. Certainly on farms, families formed attachments to animals that were later slaughtered for food. (Clarice Starling, anyone?) Actually some families still do form attachments to animals that are later eaten and although rabbit is not so common that there is a national "Rabbit, it's what's for dinner" campaign, it is eaten enough to be accepted as dinner fare. ( Unlike say squirrel, which is eaten only certain areas.)

The responses to this post are rabid and knee jerk about how "evil" and "sick" the poster is to eat her dead pet. And certainly I had that emotional response as I could never look at my cat and think "Hmmmm Kung Pao Kitty or Kitten Fritters?" but that doesn't mean that there is really anything inherently wrong with someone eating a pet. Especially since she DIDN'T KILL THE PET. What's interesting is we have gotten to this level that you can't even question people about the holiness with which they regard their pets. You can't even have a conversation without someone screaming at you about how sick you are. I'm sure I will get yelled at or at the very least miff people, even though I myself would never eat a pet. My only point is that essentially the poster didn't really do anything wrong except challenge a social norm.

(this link and post courtesy of metafilter Go there and read more exciting and intellectually challenging comments)

PS The site is a "hoax" perpetrated by the "narrator" to force people to consider their personal ethics. Still I'm sure someone somewhere has done this, although maybe without the pics.