Ah sod it I know IABU but still feel odd about this!!!

[DaisyFlower123]

DH and I are in a lovely position of being able to grow and rear most our own food, including meat. We make sure everything we rear has a good life, is well looked after and for me personally I feel happier about eating this meat over supermarket meat when I know where it has come from. Currently we have lambs, pigs, cows and chickens. All of these are kept at a family farm and I prepare, cook and eat regularly.

DH has decided we are now going to breed rabbits at home for meat. We have eaten rabbit he has shot in the wild many times and I have never had an issue with this.... but rabbits at home? This seems different, I always thought we would get DS a rabbit or guinea pig as a pet but not quite like this! I know it is hypocritical to feel this way but I am not sure I can breed these and then eat them!! Why am I feeling funny about this but fine with all our other self sufficient activities. I am heavily pregnant so many hormones go awry!

Nope, I'd feel exactly the same. They're too cute and fluffy to eat.

I don't think yabu actually

I think keeping rabbits to eat them is, well, not very nice tbh.

I also remember a story Elizabeth kubler ross told about when she was a little girl her family kept rabbits, she like most little girls would, had named them and played with them. One day her dad told her to go down and choose which rabbit was going to be killed for dinner

This was incredibly traumatic for her.

So no please don't keep bunnies to eat.

YABU in that you kill lambs, pigs, chickens for food now and also eat wild rabbits so breeding rabbits to eat is just the same as those things to me. On the other hand poor little bunny rabbits!! Maybe have a different type of rabbit (breed, colour, something) for the breeding stock then for DS's pet a more unusual one (long eared, dwarf, etc) as a compromise. ps: most envious of your goodlife living - I can't even grow herbs without killing them!

Cows, Pigs and Chickens are what I class at normal meat..its everyday meat!
Bunny and Duck, I just can't get my head around..i take my little girl to feed the ducks and I used to breed bunnies..they're pets to me.

My OH isn't the same, he loves duck and wants to try Bambi :(
i'm not cool with this. haha.

I understand how you feel completely!

Bunnies are friends not food!

Well, you're being speciesist, but fair enough! It's brilliant you are able to rear your own animals for food. Bet they have a great life. It's almost impossible for most people to undo their cultural baggage, so don't think you're really unreasonable at all.

For me, the difference would be between animals raised on a farm, and animals in your house/garden. You, and your son, would be around the rabbits all day and would get fond of them. That's not the same as knowing they are there on a farm being raised (in nice conditions) for meat.

I have no problem with eating rabbit, duck, venison, etc. And I have no problem with raising animals for meat. But I think you need to be quite clear, specially with children, abou what is a pet and what is a farm animal, and I don't think you can do that with rabbits in the house. Specially if you have any thought of getting a pet rabbit at some stage!

We always used to bury the ones who were named and eat the ones who weren't.

Why can't you keep/breed the rabbits at the farm as a compromise?

X-post. What AMumInScotland said, basically.

Is DH French by any chance?
This is, and always has been, common practice in rural France.

Couldn't do it myself, would be like eating a pet cat. I have shot and skinned wild rabbits with no guilt or emotions and Chickens are NOT the same.

Nah yanbu. I won't eat birds because it feels wrong. DH thinks it's bizarre to be so precious solely about birds.

Should make it clear these rabbits won't be kept as pets and clear lines will be drawn with DS, just me who feels funny about it. Dh has suggesteed the babies go to farm for 'fattening' so we don't bond with them but feels that they need to be near home as we can keep a closer eye on and often need more frequent care than other animals.

I know I am being silly and shouldn't differentiate between species. You're right nethun we are very lucky and I love our style of life!

YABU - You are quite happy to slaughter and eat intelligent animals (pigs) but baulk at a bunny

YABU. any herbivore is fine to eat. That includes rabbits, horses, goats, kangaroo, birds etc etc. it's no different from eating those huge cows and the cute fluffy sheep.

I think of rabbits as game (ie wild), not farmed, so I don't think you are being unreasonable. Farming rabbit doesn't feel right to me either.

Sorry - to be clear - I would eat rabbit, I just don't think of them as a farmed animal. I feel the same about deer. It's not because they are cute and fluffy.

I couldn't kill even a fish. My FIL kept rabbits to eat, but they were not pets and I saw them only once, before I knew we would be eating them at MIL's table.

The meal was delicious, btw.