Swedes burn wild bunnies for warmth

[efusco]

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...ddlyEnoughNews

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Forget bunny boiling jealous rages and rapacious butchers. The biggest threats to Peter Rabbit's Swedish cousins are the cold, the cull and their flammable cadavers.
The city of Stockholm shoots thousands of wild rabbits spread across the green spaces of the Swedish capital and sends their bodies to be burned as heating fuel, a practice which has enraged animal rights groups.
City official Mats Freij said Stockholm killed 6,000 wild rabbits last year and has culled 3,000 so far this year, but said a subcontractor decided to use the cadavers as fuel.
"One should put this in the perspective that we (humans) are actually cremated ourselves and that generates a completely different reaction," Freij said in response to criticism.
Animal Rights Sweden spokeswoman Lise-Lott Alsenius questioned whether the practice was humane or ethical and suggested neutering the male rabbits as an alternative method of holding down the population.
"One at least has to evaluate what the alternatives are to just simply shooting them," she said.
Konvex, the company handling the operation, said the rabbits were ground up with the cadavers of other beasts, mainly farm animals such as cows which have been deemed unfit for human consumption, reduced to flammable form and incinerated.
"Just as with us people ... the bodies contain a lot of fat and fat has exactly the same energy content as normal heating oil for instance," Konvex Chief Executive Leo Virta said.

[TonyPSchaefer]

It's functional but does seem to hinge on the unsavory.

[amm0bob]

Culling vermin...


No... I hadn't heard of this before...


I am not outraged... after all, we are talking about animal control here... bunnies may look cute, but they ARE among the most destructive animals to crops.

[qbee42]

Animal rights people are often a little unhinged. Their core ideals are great, but they often suffer from a lack of perspective, which then translates into these bizarre knee-jerk reactions.

Tom

[BigJay]

In the UK rabbits are considered a nuisance, and if you don't keep their population under control on your lands you may be subject to a stiff fine. Some people hunt them for sport using ferrets and nets. I think maybe the brits are just too smart and practical to make it an animal rights or environmental issue.

[patsparks]

I don't really think burning a dead bunny hurts it, or am I confused?
1, They need to reduce the population
2. They need to get rid of the bodies
what's the issue?
Please, I would rather be shot than have my nuts ripped out without anaesthetic..

[jayman]

Originally Posted by patsparks

Please, I would rather be shot than have my nuts ripped out without anaesthetic..

Oh boy, I don't even want to THINK about it

[Hands protectively covering package]

[daniel]

I gather the animal-rights folks are upset about the rabbits being killed, not about the method used for disposing of the bodies afterwards.

One of my neighbors raised sheep. One day I stopped by, and he and his hired hand were castrating lambs. I was a bit shocked. Seemed awfully cruel. He insisted the pain was minimal. Regardless, most of the males of pretty much all farm animals are castrated. A few are kept whole for breeding. 50% of the steaks you eat came from castrated cows (the other half were female). Same for pigs, etc. So castrating wild rabbits would be no different than the way domesticated farm animals are treated.

Rabbits are terrible and extremely destructive pests. You either control them, or they will trash the landscape.

But I'm surprised they are burning the rabbits rather than processing them for their meat. It would seem to me the meat would be more valuable than the fuel. If the rabbits are diseased they could always sterilize them with radiation. (I've got no objection to meat being irradiated. I don't eat the stuff. )

[burritos]

I like ABBA.

[MJFrog]

Originally Posted by daniel

One of my neighbors raised sheep. One day I stopped by, and he and his hired hand were castrating lambs. I was a bit shocked. Seemed awfully cruel. He insisted the pain was minimal. Regardless, most of the males of pretty much all farm animals are castrated. A few are kept whole for breeding. 50% of the steaks you eat came from castrated cows (the other half were female). Same for pigs, etc. So castrating wild rabbits would be no different than the way domesticated farm animals are treated.

I'm sorry daniel, but you cannot castrate cows...some kind of law against it...probably 'of nature'.

Now bulls, yes, they can be castrated.