[Blacksheep]

So I was considering getting some meat rabbits and was looking at classifieds. These rabbits will be for my dogs and to help with a small, local co op for pets. The rabbit farms here put out but are expensive so some of us are putting it into our own hands =]

I have been looking at flemish giants and Californians. Both are in my area but being sold as pets. Now heres the thing. No way would I lie and take someone's pet and just make it into food right away but what about if I did it to their offspring or after they hit a certain age? Is that wrong?

 

[Dragonrain]

Well I'm a 'rabbit person' so my opinion may be biased, but why don't you encourage adoption instead of selling rabbits bred for meat as pets? There are already so many pet rabbits in shelters in this country. Even rabbits that are being bred for the sole purpose of being pets are ending up in shelters. If their are rabbit farms in your area that 'put out' already, I would assume that there is no shortage of rabbits in your area already.

Breeding rabbits for food and breeding for pets conforms to two different standards. How are you going to breed pets that are healthy with good temperaments if you, most of the time, don't know what happens to the rabbits as adults - either because they are used for food, or because they are sold to random people at a pet store and you never see them again. How are you going to know if you are breeding bad genes into your animals and selling pet rabbits that end up having a lot of health issues as they mature?

I do think it would be kind of wrong to take a pet rabbit and use it for food at a certain age, in my opinion. These are usually rabbits who are socialized to trust humans and to be part of the family, and to eventually kill them seems like a huge betrayal of that trust, in my opinion. Are you going to tell people that you're going to kill the rabbits for food at a certain age?

If you really want to breed for food why don't you just find feeder rabbits to breed, instead of using ex-pet rabbits?

 

[Kendalle]

It is kind of a hard question.

On one hand if you treat your breeders well i see no problem with the offspring being food.

I don't agree with lying to the original owners though. You could say you are going to breed their rabbit. i think you will be surprised at how many won't care. At the shelter i am surprised that every day how many don't care that we will not put their animals up for adoption. THey are like ok see ya.

I wouldn't agree with using the origional breeder as food though once they get old.

 

[Purple-Hops]

Hmm, I might be a little confused. Do you want to buy kits and raise them as breeding meat suppliers? Or do you want a rescued bunny to breed and use the babies?

Anyway, my 2 cents: I love rabbits but I also don't mind people who raise and kill their own food supplies (I mean, I don't like it but it involves a deeper trust and you know what's in it rather than some mystery factory farmed genetically altered something).. If you go through a rescue you will never get a rabbit if you say you want to breed it and raise meat bunnies- no matter what its intended breed. If you find a breeder who raises meat stock than easy peasy. But a lot of people see bunnies as cute house pets. I do too but I'm trying to give you an alternate opinion. As for selling them at the co-op, I do not agree with this. I never want to see someone here capitalize on the suffering of animals. I don't care if they're family raised and loved but once they're in the arms of a store the store don't care who it is. They want the dollar. If you want to sell them, either scrap the plan and opt to adopt and support rescue or sell the babies from your home and screen potential buyers to make sure a bunny is what they're really ready for. Good luck

 

[Jess]

If you did get a rabbit from someone, you should tell them what their pet would be used for. If I adopted out a pet to some one who I thought would give it a loving home, and later found out it was being used as a feeder breeder, well... Let's say I would probably end up in jail for one reason or another!


This reminds me of the people who put their rabbits, guinea pigs, ect up for adoption on CL "free to good homes", and half of them probably end up as snake food...

 

[Sasami]

I think it would be wrong to lie (I say this as a raw feeder who occasionally buys rabbit meat BUT who also has pet rabbits). Why not get your rabbits from a farm that already produces meat rabbits? I would be horrified if I adopted out a rabbit to learn it had been used for that purpose, all of my rabbits (including fosters which do get adopted out) are raised as indoor house pets.

 

[ilidawn]

I don't have any answer as to where you would get meat rabbits but I think it's horribly sick and wrong to lie to someone about what you plan for their pet. If they wouldn't give/sell it to you knowing your plans then the right thing, in my opinion, would be to find someone who is fine or indifferent to the idea.

Out of curiosity, when you say meat rabbits do you mean you plan on killing them and feeding your dogs the meat or letting your dogs kill a live animal? (I'm new to this concept)

 

[Dragonrain]

Most ethical raw feeders humanly kill the prey before feeding it to their pet if they raise the meat themselves.

I just wanted to clarify from my previous post - it's not eating/feeding rabbits or raising them for that purpose that I disagree with. But no I don't think it would be right for you to lie to people about what you are going to use the animals for. And I also don't think it's a good idea to sell animals bred as feeders to a pet store to be sold as pets, for reasons I already stated.

Like others have said - I'd be absolutely devastated and very very upset if I had to rehome a pet and later on found out that it was killed for food or used as a feeder breeder.

 

[urofan]

I agree with everyone who said that they would be upset if an animal, who was raised as a pet, was given away live to be another person's pet, and then later used as pet food for a python, boa constricter, dog, etc. I'm strongly against any animal having to suffer in order to feed people or other animals.

 

[VanillaRat]

If you only want the meat for your dogs or your family,why not just buy from the local farms who already breed feeder rabbits?

 

[Purple-Hops]

Agreed, most people re-homing their rabbits really don't want to see it go to the dogs (literally!) so, I would scope out a meat farm and see what's there for offer.