AIBU to not want to eat rabbit on Easter Sunday?

[FireBelliedToad]

Just because...well... the Easter Bunny

IL's planning to get take away from local restaurant. Set menu, 4 courses. Main is rabbit. Not something I would choose, but I'd make the effort to eat it if served. However, I don't want to tell my DC we'll be eating rabbit at Easter. And would you expect your Dc to eat it?

Carnivorous Hypocrisy

It's a lean healthy meat, it's no more cute than lamb. I'm not sure I see the problem.

If they are very young, don't tell them and if they are older, just treat it like any other meat.

It's an odd choice of meat on Easter Sunday, which is a feast day, so normally a prized meat is chosen. Lamb is usual... which is not much better if you think about it.

I wouldn't expect children to eat it.

I have eaten rabbit in the past & enjoyed it but I won’t eat it now as we have pet rabbits.

One small drawback for children of eating rabbit (which is lovely in a cream and mustard sauce with lardons) is that it can contain small bones.
This is ok if your DC can cope with that but obviously not if they can't.
Rabbit pieces that have been filleted will be fine but if it's saddle of rabbit it is likely to be on the bone. And the bones are small and fiddly.

Life long vegetarian before someone shoots me, but a few are asking why not eat cats and dogs. Apart from the cultural reasons, look up biomass transfer energy to see why it is unsustainable to eat other carnivores.

CallmeH, your OH doesn't sound very nice.

Go for the vegetarian option

I’m sorry, but your OP made me laugh out loud! I know what you mean about it feeling inappropriate for easter; do your ILs have a dark sense of humour?

In any case, I’m sure that it will taste great 🐰

Does the restaurant not have any alternatives to rabbit? If they don't, that's unusual.

Are British children told that the Easter bunny brings them Easter eggs? I thought that was more an American thing.

Hmmm, I call BS.....

Rabbit is delicious, if you eat meat, you eat meat, not only the non cute and fluffy ones. It's right that children know where their food comes from and are allowed to make their own choices.

The main reason pigeon and rabbit fell out of fashion is because they were traditionally eaten by the very poor.

I’m just old enough to be quite sniffy at the idea of paying top dollar at a restaurant for cheap meat.

Hypocrisy aside, I think encouraging dc to eat anthropomorphic animals is deeply confusing. In fact it could be argued that it’s a step towards cannibalism. Is it ok to retain that taboo?

Rabbit is lovely, we have it often in a mustard cream sauce with mushrooms or pancetta. Your DC will likely be absolutely fine if you yourself don't make a big fuss about it- children learn food attitudes from parents. If it has bones and they can't manage then cut it up for them.

Please ignore the PP saying it's akin to cannibalism. Unless PP is a rabbit.

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?! What a weird choice by the restaurant! I'm a lifelong vegetarian and I must be a bit sick to find this amusing.

Anyway I would ask the kids in advance if they want to eat posh restaurant rabbit for Easter Sunday lunch. My guess is they will and not even make the connection with the Easter bunny. It's amazing how far the bounds of the truth can stretch when you're just at the end of believing in the Easter bunny/Santa etc.

Of course you can choose to eat some meat and not others.
I wouldn’t eat rabbit but I would just eat the accompaniments, as for the dc I would tell them what it was.
Depending on your relationship with the in laws could you/DH ask if there was another option?

If you eat meat; you eat meat. I do and so do my children, I am also honest with my children about what they're eating. They know beef is a cow etc.

Honestly what's the fuss? I would honestly eat any animal if it were farmed specifically for it like traditionally eaten animals are and tasted delicious. I mean the idea of eating cat or dog doesn't overly appeal to me but if it tasted nice and the UK had cat or dog meat farms for human consumption and you got it in a butchers or supermarket then I'd try it 🤷🏼‍♀️

Who is it worse to eat a rabbit than a chicken or lamb?

If you think it'll get wasted then I'd go somewhere else because wasting food is awful but really I can't see what the fuss is about. You either see meat as a food source or you don't.

Is there definitely no other choice? It is quite an unusual meat if there is only one option and possibly an acquired taste - I've not been served rabbit since 1964! Nothing to do with the Easter bunny. Is there a veggie option?

@Hoppinggreen

Of course you can choose to eat some meat and not others. I wouldn’t eat rabbit but I would just eat the accompaniments, as for the dc I would tell them what it was. Depending on your relationship with the in laws could you/DH ask if there was another option?

You can certainly choose to eat whichever meat you personally like and leave those that you don't. But I don't understand when there is moral outrage over eating one animal when you eat others.

Do the people who eat meat and say people are unreasonable picking which meat they do or don't eat also think eating dogs or cats is okay?
I always find it strange when meat eating friends post all these outraged stuff about other countries eating horse or dogs.

What's so different?

As a veggie I don't understand how some carnivores are ok with some meats but not others. Poor little bunnies 🐰🐇 I went veggie at 14 and thankfully never had rabbit as a child as it would have really upset me. Especially at Easter!

I’d tell my ILs it was a bad idea.
Rabbit pushes the limit on cultural norms. Yes, meat is meat, but we all know the reality is that we eat the meat we are used to eating.

Introducing children to eating rabbit on Easter is just ridiculous. Even if you don’t ask them to eat it, having it on the table is insensitive.

tuliprosedaffodil I agree but I also don’t think that just because you choose to eat one animal you shouldn’t be expected to eat them all.
No need to make a fuss about it, just a simple “I don’t eat Rabbit” said politely is fine and should be accepted without anyone having to produce a cuteness scale !

@ViolentFairy

Do the people who eat meat and say people are unreasonable picking which meat they do or don't eat also think eating dogs or cats is okay? I always find it strange when meat eating friends post all these outraged stuff about other countries eating horse or dogs.

What's so different?

I think the objection to eating dogs and cats is partly because so many of us have them as pets, partly because we generally don’t eat carnivores and partly due to the general standards of animal welfare in a lot of places where dogs etc are eaten.