Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Whole Foods sells rabbit meat



If you like eating rabbits, this post might be informative to you.

If you do not eat rabbits, and you like living rabbits, I hope you take action after reading this post.

Meet Clover. She is a family member of one of our best friends. Family. Our friend has been educating us about Whole Foods selling rabbit meat in some stores, I think they are testing the market for rabbit meat. She has stopped shopping at Whole Foods because of this and is working to get Whole Foods to stop selling rabbit meat.

I understand where she is coming from. Whenever I see or read about chinchilla fur coats, I think of the chins who are part of our family. It hits hard. The same is for our friend seeing rabbit meat sold.

I didn't think the whole rabbit meat at Whole Foods, a place where many vegans and vegetarians and animal lovers shop, would last. It didn't make sense for them to create controversy amongst loyal customers. It's been several months now and I don't think they are considering stopping the sale of rabbit meat. In fact, they are even trying to be "cute" with the sale of rabbit meat. The picture here is of a sign in a Whole Foods above a picture of rabbits who will become rabbit meat.

This photo is a combination of two photos: top is from a Whole Foods store selling rabbit meat. Bottom is from a rabbit slaughterhouse in Iowa.
 
"Come hop down the bunny trail"? Seriously?

I have to say that I like Whole Foods a little less now because of this sign. I also will clarify that a rabbit is a cow is a chicken is a fish is a rat to me. I believe in being a voice for all animals. At first I thought Whole Foods was just selling another animal. But for me, rabbits are different as they are family just like chins are my family. Folks who have rabbits as part of their family don't want to see body parts of an animal that is part of their family while they grocery shop just as I don't want to see chinchilla throws while shopping.

I know Whole Foods is getting taken to the carpet by activists around the country for many reasons. Their "humane meat" promotion is ridiculous. And hurtful. Even with all of that plus the selling of rabbit meat, we still shop there. Their selection of vegan items makes shopping easier for us.

But we shop there less. And have talked about not shopping there at all.

I have read all sorts of comments around this national campaign to get Whole Foods to stop selling rabbit meat.  There are definitely a lot of opinions. Now you know mine.

If you think Whole Foods should stop selling rabbit meat, please leave a comment at your local Whole Foods. I have always believed that we have the power to make change, and I certainly believe that Whole Foods can be convinced to stop selling rabbit meat. It takes a community of people, but it can be done.

Protests will be nationwide this coming week. Here is the Facebook event page for the Boulder Whole Foods protest against the selling of rabbit meat:

We love rabbits!


Thanks for reading.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Thank you for helping expose this important issue! You are spot on in that even though cows, chickens, fish and rats should have the same rights as rabbits, rabbits are more popular as companion animals--as *family,* living in the house. This is one of the reasons I agree that with you that this is a winnable campaign right now; we can stop it before it takes off and expands. These rabbits are kept in factory-farm-like conditions and killed as 10-week-old babies. People can also sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/wholefoods-please-do-not-sell-rabbit-meat-in-your-stores

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    1. Jill. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post and for your input!

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  3. Ugh...my entire comment got deleted the first time! Yay! Anyway, so the abridged version is that I find all animals to be my friends. I grew up in farm country so I see chickens, pigs, and lambs as my friends. I understand the argument that rabbits are people's pets but you cannot just single them out because of that. All animals, as you noted, need to have their rights represented. People keep pigs as pets yet no one is protesting pork at WFM. They do sell lamb at Christmas (and Easter sometimes) yet I haven't heard anyone protesting lamb. If people are to protest rabbits, they should protest the entire meat counter. All animals needs to be represented, not just animals that can be conventionally considered pets. In all honesty, WFM will probably phase this out (I believe they did sell foie gras for a time but got rid of it because of the protests). I've never seen rabbit at the Whole Foods I shop at and honestly, the store I usually shop at is adding MORE vegan options. I know the dairy buyer and I've complimented him on adding more vegan options to the section. So let's chalk this up to respectfully agreeing to disagree. I love your blog and I love that y'all are pretty much my neighbors here in Denver! I appreciate the input you give on vegan restaurants in Denver as well as your input on LGBT issues and animal rights issues. Keep on keeping on! :)

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  4. Hi! Thank you so much for writing your comment...TWICE!

    I understand where you are coming from. And I am super grateful for your kind words. They reminded me that I need to finish a restaurant review that I've been working on!

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  5. Whole Foods ain't all that, and it annoys me when people promote the store as friendly to vegans. I shop there to get specific items, but to be in their space I have to look past so many things that hurt. I keep thinking that it should be a no brainer to move the vegan options on the hot bar away from the meat. That an animal that was raised to be "free" still met the same end as the one in a CAFO. And I'm not sure which heart hurt more, in that moment. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I often cruise the aisles feeling a little bitter that I have to share space with those "positive" messages about how meat was raised. At Safeway, they don't make apologies. And I'm weirdly more comfortable with that.

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    1. Heidi! Thanks so much reading and taking the time to comment. We do most of our grocery shopping at Safeway, I even wrote a post about them a few weeks ago.

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. Some Safeways are selling rabbit meat now...

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