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Swedes burn wild bunnies for warmth

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by efusco, Oct 15, 2009.

  1. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    :smow::flame::target:
    http://www.reuters.com/article/oddl...0091014?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

    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.
     
  2. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    It's functional but does seem to hinge on the unsavory.
     
  3. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    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.
     
  4. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    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
     
  5. BigJay

    BigJay reh reh REH reh Torture them!

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    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.
     
  6. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    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..
     
  7. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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

    [Hands protectively covering package]
     
  8. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    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. :D (I've got no objection to meat being irradiated. I don't eat the stuff. ;) )
     
  9. burritos

    burritos Senior Member

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    I like ABBA.
     
  10. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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

    Now bulls, yes, they can be castrated.
     
  11. Dave_PH

    Dave_PH New Member

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    What do you expect from godless commies.
     
  12. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    Seriously. You ever go to a French place and get the lapin? Every time I do I rack up a minimum $80 check.
     
  13. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    From Dictionary.com; definition 3 for "cow":

     
  14. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Bunnies are much warmer alive, and they'll eat all sorts of stuff that would otherwise be thrown out. Just put a few in an enclosed box, run some ducting, and you have a bunny furnace. When there's too many, make stew. No need to burn them. :) :suspicious:
     
  15. Dave_PH

    Dave_PH New Member

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    I wonder how warm Bunny poop burns. Don't beople out in fly over country burn cowpies? Somebody burns cow pies.
     
  16. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Now THAT is a recycling program I could get into!

    Like most s***, you're better off putting it into a digester to get the methane, and then using the methane to burn for heat, or to run a combined cycle generator
     
  17. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Yeah, Indians, from India.

    If you used bunnies for warmth then eat the excess bunnies, what are you going to cook them over? See, you can't make rabbit stew without burning a few bunnies.
     
  18. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Yes. After they've dried out. Wet poop does not burn. Gotta be dry. And it stinks. The early settlers on the Great Plains burned dry buffalo poop, and their sod huts stank to high heaven. Seriously.
     
  19. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    We don't rip them out. Slice them, yes, but no ripping. Or use this tool, which cuts the cords and you won't feel anything from the other side.

    I seem to remember the branding and de-horning (that is removing the keratin-covered protrusions on the skull, for you gutter-minded folks) causing at least as much, or more, howling as does the castration.
     
  20. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I need that tool. It could come in VERY handy dealing with juvenile car thieves around here