BS: Bunnies???

Subject: BS: Bunnies???
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 11:30 AM

Stockholm's bunnies burned to keep Swedes warm

Published: 12 Oct 09 14:46 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22610/20091012/

The bodies of thousands of rabbits culled every year from the parks in Stockholm's Kungsholmen neighbourhood are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.

The decision to use Stockholm's rabbit cadavers as bioenergy to warm Swedes living in Värmland doesn't sit well with Stockholm-based animal rights activists.

"Those who support the culling of rabbits surely think it's good to use the bodies for a good cause. But it feels like they're trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem," Anna Johannesson of Vilda kaniners värn ('Society for the Protection of Wild Rabbits') told the local Vårt Kungsholmen newspaper.

Every year, the city of Stockholm kills off thousands of rabbits in an effort to protect trees and shrubbery in the city's extensive network of parks and green space.

According to Tommy Tuvunger with the Stockholm Traffic Office, the agency responsible for controlling the city's rodent and wild animal population, part of the problem rests with delinquent pet owners who decide to release their rabbits into the city's parks.

"Many of the released rabbits are tame," he told the newspaper.

Animal control authorities employ a special rifle to shoot the excess rabbits, with most of the culling taking place at dawn when the animals peek out from their holes.

The city usually steps up its rabbit hunting efforts in the autumn as leaves begin to fall from bushes and trees, making it easier to see the rabbits.

Tuvunger explained that it doesn't take many newly released rabbits to do what rabbits are known for doing, much to the detriment of Stockholm's efforts to control the size of its rabbit population.

"People who think that the bunnies are cute and cuddly suddenly don't think they're as fun anymore and put the animals outside. They think: 'there they can play with the other rabbits'," he said.

Last year marked a new record for Stockholm's rabbit cull, with nearly 6,000 rabbits, mostly from Kungsholmen, being removed from Stockholm's parks.

But rather than simply disposing of the dead rabbits, the city instead froze them for eventual transport to a special heating plant in Karlskoga in central Sweden, where the bunny bodies are then burned as a form of bioenergy.

According to Johannesson, Sweden's animal control authorities aren't interested in pursuing other options besides killing the rabbits.

"We want to see them start looking at other solutions for the rabbits," she said, citing the Finnish capital of Helsinki, which employs sprays to make park plants unappetizing as well as a network of shelters for various domesticated animals.

"In Helsinki, where they have the same problem, they've come much farther," Johannesson told Vårt Kungsholmen.

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: bobad
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 12:12 PM

Eating them would be more useful IMO.

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 12:19 PM

I agree with bodad.

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 12:26 PM

Burn Bunny Burn

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: jacqui.c
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 12:32 PM

Mmmmmmm....

Rabbit stew......

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 12:33 PM

Distributing them fairly and dealing with possible diseases and such might make eating them a bit complex....

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: Jos
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 01:27 PM

Rabbit pie - rabbit paté - rabbit marinated in red wine and garlic - if there are so many, sharing them out fairly shouldn't be a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 01:30 PM

Rabbits living in human-populated areas eat vegetation that is likely to have been treated with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and other pollutants. Their meat should be treated as potentially toxic biological material, not as a food source.

Incineration is the only safe way to dispose of toxic biological material. All the Swedes are doing is converting some of the energy released during incineration into a usable form instead of having 100% of it go up the smokestack as waste heat.

Subject: RE: BS: Bunnies???
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 01:31 PM

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit