"Eh, Rabbits Are Vermin Anyways"

David Weigel | December 1, 2006

It's usually a bad idea to record a video with the mike halfway down someone's throat, but this snippet of a PETA protest against POM (the makers of that pomegrenate juice) is good for a laugh. While passersby try to ignore a woman miming the slaughter of a giant rabbit, someone walks behind the camera and dismisses the worth of the species. The PETA members seem nonplussed.

Comments

|12.1.06 @ 3:15PM|#

Maybe it's my old ears or bad PC speakers, but I couldn't make out any of the speech in that video. Anybody care to explain it?

|12.1.06 @ 3:16PM|#

I have no idea what was said in that video.

|12.1.06 @ 3:18PM|#

And what's the connection between pomegranite juice and dead rabbits anyway?

|12.1.06 @ 3:19PM|#

Uh, I eat rabbit.

ChrisO: the audio is best summed up by the very last comment, "oh, c'mon."

|12.1.06 @ 3:20PM|#

And what's the connection between pomegranite juice and dead rabbits anyway?

Hell if I know. Maybe the rabbits use OTC pomegranite juice to make meth.

|12.1.06 @ 3:39PM|#

All I can think of is: kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit...

|12.1.06 @ 3:42PM|#

I can't explain why I bothered, but here it is.

Pamela Anderson's latest animal rights campaign has her targeting the juice maker Pom, producer of trendy pomegranate juice.

The former Baywatch beauty is calling for a boycott of the California-based company amid accusations it conducts cruel and unnecessary animal tests to back up health claims. It's part of the latest campaign by PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

B.C.-born Anderson posted a graphic video on her website outlining experiments the company allegedly funds.

They include the mutilation of rabbits to study erectile dysfunction and the suffocation and killing of baby mice.

A spokesperson from Pom could not be immediately reached for comment.

PETA says other major pomegranate-juice makers don't use or harm any animals in their product tests.

© The Canadian Press 2006

http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=13288007-1cf5-494e-ac7a-c37d8ea3ddc6&k=39323

|12.1.06 @ 3:43PM|#

Rabbits is some good eatin' but only if you slaughter them at 8-16 weeks. Any older and you will have nothing but a hunk of stew meat.

|12.1.06 @ 3:45PM|#

POM Kills Animals.

PETA Kills Amimals.

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

|12.1.06 @ 3:48PM|#

ah, that would be "animals"...

|12.1.06 @ 3:49PM|#

I miss the days of PETA protests involing hot, semi-nekid women.

Ah...good times, good times...

lunchstealer|12.1.06 @ 3:49PM|#

B.C.-born Anderson posted a graphic video on her website...

I'll bet she did, I'll bet she did! A nod's as good as a wink to a blind man, eh guvnah?

|12.1.06 @ 4:07PM|#

Pamela Anderson's latest animal rights campaign has her targeting the juice maker Pom, producer of trendy pomegranate juice.

Why did I first read that as "...producer of trendy pornographic juice"?

Sandy|12.1.06 @ 4:09PM|#

They say something before "oh, c'mon," but damned if a human can tell what it is.

|12.1.06 @ 4:22PM|#

I think it's "Rabbits are vermin anyway."

|12.1.06 @ 4:24PM|#

it might be friday, but this is fishing for a post.

Rhywun|12.1.06 @ 4:26PM|#

I wonder how many animals died to ensure the safe installation of Pamela Anderson's breasts.

Sara|12.1.06 @ 4:30PM|#

It's tastey and the tea comes in a glass that you can keep. Plus, it's really good for you and the rabbits prove it. Thank you rabbits! Add vodka and you're healthy through the weekend!

|12.1.06 @ 5:11PM|#

Nonplussed?

|12.1.06 @ 5:31PM|#

The only thing the street performance needs is a guy providing dramatic music ala "Psycho", standing behind the guy with the knife and going "Dun dun DUN dun dun DUN dun DUNNNNNN!!!!" as the rabbit dies.

|12.1.06 @ 5:39PM|#

Since there is no blood coming from the bunny, it is clear that the bunny is in fact Bunnicula. Guard your fruits and vegetables well!

|12.1.06 @ 7:31PM|#

Nonplussed (2). [informal]

|12.1.06 @ 8:22PM|#

Any Australians around?

I'd like to hear their take on this.

|12.1.06 @ 8:28PM|#

Well since they don't do FireWorks; nor Vacuum Cleaning; they don't Milk Cows; Nor do they Close Doors. And they are trying to take over the world.
evidence:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=I3U5Xcv3ZPU

So we might as well eat them.

Fight Back!

(make em Dance too!)

|12.2.06 @ 5:18AM|#

So I'm the only libertarian animal welfare activist? Dang.

|12.2.06 @ 7:46AM|#

Dave, well yes, probably, but as long as you don't do something as dumb as in the video, it'll be alright.

Anonymous Coward|12.2.06 @ 9:29AM|#

So I'm the only libertarian animal welfare activist? Dang.

The Monkey Handlers

Ex-Navy SEAL Michael Stone is jolted out of his placid real-estate law practice when the sister of a Vietnam buddy is arrested for trespassing at a chemical plant run by a West German corporation in New York's Hudson Valley. The Germans, led by the ruthless Metz, try to retrieve animal rights activist Sara Rosen's photos of an animal-experimentation lab and to intimidate Mike with a vicious biker gang. After Sara and her inept, idealist boyfriend get themselves into dire peril, Stone, with a trio of former SEALs and Sara's brother, comes to the rescue. Their next job is to stop international terrorists from wiping out Manhattan. The derring is done very well, with graphic details built around shocking descriptions of animal experimentation. What may surprise readers is Liddy's convincing case against unnecessary, FDA-forced cruelty to animals. The ending is a bit abrupt, but otherwise Liddy's touch is deft.

|12.2.06 @ 11:16AM|#

methodman,

Yeah, I know, but it's just one of those words that should be dropped from usage, since it has two definitions which are mutually contradictory. Its especially frustrating because it is impossible to be able to tell from context how its being used. If the PETA people were genuinely nonplussed (standard definition), that would have been awesome.

|12.2.06 @ 11:22AM|#

Bunnies aren't bad.

http://www.comic-mint.com/media/client/0954_JessicaCloseUp2-detail.JPG

They're just Drawn that way.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|12.2.06 @ 1:48PM|#

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19991221

The Wine Commonsewer|12.2.06 @ 3:11PM|#

Rabbits are vile creatures with no redeeming social value. And they can eat your flowers to the ground in an hour.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.2.06 @ 3:13PM|#

Anonocoward, no rational person deliberately causes unnecessary harm to our animal friends. I even apologize to the rats I humanely trap right before I drown them.

|12.2.06 @ 3:59PM|#

TWC,

Don't forget those winged rats known as "pigeons". There is no death too cruel for those foul creatures.

|12.2.06 @ 6:00PM|#

Don't forget those winged rats known as "pigeons". There is no death too cruel for those foul creatures.

And yet there are still people who feed them. This is the gist of an actual convesration with a pigeon feeder.

Me: Why are you feeding them, they're just rats with wings.
Pigeon feeder: But they're Gods creatures too.
Me: So are cockroaches. Do you feed them too?
Pigeon feeder: You're sick!

Obviously, my persuading tactics need a little work.

|12.2.06 @ 6:14PM|#

To see animal cruelty I need do nothing more than spend an afternoon watching my cat as she terrorizes the various small denizens of my yard.

Now while I feel that prey should be dispatched as quickly as possible she has no such scruples. Whether it's lizards or mice their deaths are long drawn out miserable affairs.

How does PETA plan to deal with that kind of criminality.

|12.2.06 @ 11:29PM|#

I'd hate to necromance but everybody feeds cockroaches, you just can't help it.

|12.3.06 @ 4:32AM|#

Aresen- I am Australian and having been asked to comment...ummm...kill the rabbit!!! Kill it and drink it with Shiraz!!!

biologist|12.3.06 @ 9:58AM|#

there was a small kerfluffle several years ago in Fla over rabbit-killing: one of the herpetological (reptiles and amphibians) societies was renting space in a high school for their monthly meetings, and you could purchase animals and supplies before and after the meetings, including food animals. big snakes often eat rabbits. the general public found out and someone tried to get the practice stopped because they were offended that cute little bunnies were being sold to be slaughtered for snake food, right here in our public schools. what kind of a message does that send? I think they called the local animal control and accused the snake people of cruelty to animals. The whiners were quite surprised to learn rabbits are, in fact, considered nuisance animals because of their damage to crop plants, and didn't rate legal protection.

biologist|12.3.06 @ 10:03AM|#

with regard to proper usage of nonplussed, this is what happens when you use a descriptive model of linguistics, rather than a prescriptive model.

another example is the word prodigal, made famous in the biblical story of the prodigal son. from context, everyone assumes that prodigal means either rebellious, or a rebel who later repents his deeds. in fact, prodigal's original meaning is "characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure"

|12.4.06 @ 12:59PM|#

I love Maddox's treatment of Veganism and other such "animal rights" stupidity. If you're a veg(etari)an, then you kill animals and the moral difference between you and a meat-eater is merely one of degree, not kind.

Wheat is murder!

It's also instructive to see that a PeTA zealot responded to Maddox's article and Maddox took the treatment even further:

PeTA responds!

Dave, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Maddox's writings. Are you ready to plant your own crops and harvest them by hand? If not, why not?

|12.4.06 @ 1:18PM|#

Usually when people start talking bunny, I like to bring up the fact that rabbits, by nature of their inefficient physiology, eat their own poo. To be more precise, they eat a slimy, "proto-poo", and the second pass (the "pellets") is what they leave behind.

Makes you want a plate of lapin au beurre blanc, doesn't it? Bon appetit! (I still eat rabbit.)

This is a good argument to use against proponents of "intelligent design". "Why did God design the rabbit to eat its own poo?" It's a good knife-twisting question for creationists masquerading as science aficionados.

|12.5.06 @ 10:30AM|#

The amount of pain caused by the factory farming of animals is exponentially worse than the amount of pain caused by, say, the rodents who get killed when farmers combine their fields.

Death isn't the main issue for most veg*ns; pain is. It's why I don't have any really serious problems with hunting--most hunters do a good job of ending the animal's life as quickly and painlessly as possible. Factory farming is the exact opposite of this.

|12.6.06 @ 2:21PM|#

Typical veg*an defense:

The amount of pain caused by the factory farming of animals is exponentially worse than the amount of pain caused by, say, the rodents who get killed when farmers combine their fields.

And Dave knows this because he measured it! It is most certainly NOT some simple assertion with emotional language.

Death isn't the main issue for most veg*ns; pain is.

So killing is okay as long as you minimize pain? Gotcha, murderer.