Airborn Raptors

Not to get all preachy, but around here we are big believers than everything has a purpose for it’s being. If we have a tool, it should be used for the purpose it was created to fulfill to the best of its ability. If it’s a human, we believe we are called to a high ethical standard and put our hands to good work. For our rabbits, we believe they honor their existence by fulfilling a purpose whether it be fur, fancy, or food.

I love reading these words, memorialized in the Bible long before that fantastic musical group the Beatles:

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift. (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13)

It’s not often I get all philosophical on this website, but today we made a significant decision for us — we donated several rabbits to our local Raptor Rescue.

Our main focus in raising rabbits is providing an organic meat source for our family. However, there are times when we just have more rabbits than we can personally use. Not every rabbit is destined for the show table, and it’s not ethical to sell a pedigreed rabbit as a show rabbit simply because it’s purebred, even though the sale of pedigreed rabbits recoup food costs.

We were turned on to our local Airborn Raptors Unlimited rescue by another family involved in our 4H club and we have been so impressed with Alyssa and her program. They have been doing free shows with the raptors for many years and do their best to treat their animals extremely well.

Birds of prey eat. They eat prey. The number one prey animal in the world is the rabbit! (That’s why they have so stinkin’ many babies!)

So when we found ourselves in a spot where we had more rabbits than we could use for the time being, we contacted Alyssa. Since they run their program almost entirely on donations, she was incredibly grateful. We learned an interesting fact as well, our domesticate rabbits are significantly larger than wild rabbits; cottontails and jackrabbits and such. Out little 5 pound fryers can feed three raptors and a fully grown commercial breed rabbit (8+ lbs.) can feed at least five birds. That’s pretty amazing production and food usage!

It’s a hard decision for us to let any animal go, but it does feel like each of our rabbits has a distinct purpose in their life and that’s also something beautiful. I know that our rabbits will go to further a worthy cause and nourish a beautiful animal, although it’s difficult to imagine them going at all.

Tagged: rabbits are prey animals, raptors