Bunny huggers are hopping mad at…Whole Foods.
Yep, that Whole Foods.
The one that sells all things green, natural, flavorless, and dye and perfume free.
The anger comes from the market’s decision to sell rabbit in select stores in Northern California, the Midwest, north Atlantic, the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, South and Pacific Northwest as part of a pilot program.
The most vocal of these angered bunny lovers is the nonprofit rabbit advocacy group The House Rabbit Society. It stated on its website that it will be handing out leaflets this weekend informing shoppers that bunnies are “popular furry companion[s].”
Oh, how fun!
Whole Foods spokesman Mike Silverman addressed the issue in an email to the Huffington Post. The email stated in part that Whole Foods is “sensitive to the companion animal issue” but “A number of shoppers have been asking Whole Foods Market to carry rabbit for years but conventional raising practices do not meet our rigorous animal welfare standards.” Silverman continued, “To meet our customers’ requests for rabbit we needed our own set of animal welfare standards. These animal welfare standards are a direct result of a rigorous four-year process to address the welfare issues in rabbit production.”
The House Rabbit Society has called this explanation “just greenwashing PR.”
I call rabbits tasty although I doubt I’ll be buying any at Whole Foods anytime soon.
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