Ark. Teens Horrified by Rabbit Butchered on Fieldtrip
Students Chose Meat for Dinner at Heifer International
Last Edited: Thursday, 26 Apr 2007, 2:40 PM CDT
Created: Thursday, 26 Apr 2007, 10:58 AM CDT
PERRYVILLE, Ark. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com) —
Seventh-graders participating in a Heifer International program that recreates living conditions in third-world countries voted to have rabbit for dinner, and some were horrified when the animal was butchered before their eyes.

After students from Kirksey Middle School in Rogers elected to have meat for dinner, a worker in Heifer’s Global Village program broke the animal’s neck, cut off its head and prepared the meat for dinner….

Read it all.

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I also found this: “Heifer Controversy”, which includes a video of the Fox 16 news segment.

Here it is, in case it disappears from Fox’s site:

Heifer Controversy
Last Update: Apr 27, 2007 8:27 PM
Posted By: Jennifer Akers

Meat or no meat? That’s the question thousands of students have to answer when they participate in a program at Heifer International’s Global Village in Perryville. If the students vote for meat, a rabbit gets slaughtered and cooked before their eyes.

Teaching students about what it’s like to live in a third world country, they live in huts, and they want to eat meat they have to kill what they eat. During field trips to Heifer’s Global Village, middle school students are asked if they want meat for dinner, when they vote yes the teacher breaks a rabbits neck, chops its head off, skins it, and cooks it.
Now, we need to tell you, these rabbits on your screen are pet rabbits, not the rabbits Heifer uses which are rabbits grown specifically for meat.

“This is a really good way, connect kids, realities, life in a developing world,” said Ray White. Heifer’s mission is to fight world hunger and poverty. But the educational experience doesn’t come without controversy, a mother e-mails Fox16 stating that when her son was in 5th grade he went to the ranch, and still talks about hearing the rabbit scream when the neck was broken.

She goes on to say that years later, her son is still traumatize from hearing the rabbit. Heifer has been offering the rabbit experience for more than a decade, but tonight, they’ve decided not to offer the experience until they reexamine it fully. “We’re looking at the process, are we informing, well enough, what’s going on, slowing down, do we need to do better notifications,” said Ray White.

But Tamidra Marable who has taken dozens of kids to the Global Village, says Heifer does notify parents and schools, and says the experience is life-changing. Jennifer says:”Would you allow your son to go?” “Certainly, it makes for a well rounded educational experience, other parts of the world in a safe, controlled environment,” said Tamidra Marable.

This is the first time the rabbit killings have been halted due to complaints. In order to go through the rabbit program, Heifer requires that students be at least twelve years old. We should also point out that Heifer is not eliminating the program. It’s just taking a closer look at the parental notification process before it begins offering it again.

My reaction:

What does it really matter if those are “pet” rabbits or “food” rabbits? Do “food” rabbits feel less pain when their necks are broken? Or is it just our perception that some animals should have preferential treatment because they’re perceived as “pets”? Or is it because “pets” have some legal protection from abuse, where “food” animals don’t?

I actually commend Heifer Project for giving the kids a dose of the ugly reality of death, because people should know where their meat comes from, and because their catalog is all warm and fuzzy — like a bunny (and where animal flesh is euphemistically called “protein”).

However, if this form of killing is what they practice, and teach to the recipients of their animals around the world, there needs to be a more humane method of killing that does not cause rabbits to scream when their necks are broken, and the smiling children like those featured in their catalog to become traumatized — or culturally desensitized toward everyday violence against defenseless animals!

And the problem (which our churches contribute to) is much more widespread than what goes on in their Global Village, since we can assume that a couple of rabbits bought by a well-intentioned donor can multiply rapidly into incalcuable rabbit deaths.

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This is the first article I found yesterday. But it was gone today. This article appeared in the “Pine Bluff Commercial”, but is now available as a cached copy on Google. I’m copying it below, because it said that if one student voted against killing the animal, the entire small group would not eat meat. If the kids knew that, it’s too bad for whatever reason, that one didn’t speak up to say “no”. Is that made clear to the small groups when they’re asked if they want meat? Is that something that could be made clear by the school, or in the notifications that are sent to the parents? They should be told that a rabbit will (not might) be killed if none of the group participants will speak up and say “no” they don’t want meat, when the question is asked.

cache

7th-graders face decision: Kill a rabbit or go without meat

Thursday, April 26, 2007 10:48 AM CDT
PERRYVILLE, Ark. - Seventh-graders participating in a Heifer International program that recreates living conditions in third-world countries voted to have rabbit for dinner, and some were horrified when the animal was butchered before their eyes.

After students from Kirksey Middle School in Rogers elected to have meat for dinner, a worker in Heifer’s Global Village program broke the animal’s neck, cut off its head and prepared the meat for dinner.

“If I had known my daughter was going to watch them slaughter a rabbit, she wouldn’t have went,” said Mike Story, whose daughter began crying when asked how the trip had gone. “To her, a rabbit is a pet, so it was like watching a pet die.”

Heifer officials said the challenge _ slaughter a rabbit or go meatless _ has been presented many times before to Rogers students without objections. Two parents complained after their daughters returned home from the two-day trip Tuesday.

Story’s daughter, 13, voted for the killing, as did Shannon Pointer’s daughter.
“Yes, I would have liked to have known ahead of time, so I could have stuffed a few granola bars in her bag,” Pointer said. “But I love Kirksey, and I don’t think they did anything intentional to damage my daughter.”

Heifer International, headquartered in Little Rock, is an anti-poverty and anti-hunger organization. Its Global Village at Perryville offers visitors a chance to stay overnight and have access only to resources common to third-world countries.

Heifer spokesman Ray White said students, divided into small groups, were asked to choose whether or not they would witness the killing of a rabbit in order to have meat for dinner. If one student voted against killing the animal, the entire small group would not eat meat.

The choice is meant to connect students to the reality of where meat comes from, White said.

White said Heifer officials would discuss whether it needs to do more to make sure parents are informed ahead of time.

Beth Carnes, director of the Rogers gifted and talented program, said Wednesday that parents were notifed at a meeting and by mail that a rabbit might be killed at Heifer. It was the eighth year the Rogers school had sent a group to Heifer.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

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It seems like churches are always coming up with creative ways to incorporate the use of animals and violence into their celebrations, and to raise money for some worthy cause, usually around children, which is popular. This one will raise money to promote non-violence….

Read about it here:

The fairest feast
Churches tap creativity to portray medieval pageantry of Boar’s Head festivals

(Doesn’t that picture look more like a scene from Hell than a scene from a church event — or, to use the word in the article, “spectacle”? As long as we wrap something like pigs symbolizing evil in liturgy, it become acceptable in the eyes of the Church — especially if money can be raised.)

When I heard about this dredging up of an ancient custom, and wondering when the churches will stop justifying, promoting, and celebrating “death for a good cause”, I was reminded of this line from a hymn –
“New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth.”

In fact, when it comes to the Church’s attitude toward animals, as opposed to where God stands, I’m reminded of the whole hymn, because with each great cause or decision churches make, they should choose to look beneath the marketed myths, to offer bloom over blight:

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ítwixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ítis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calvíries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

“You Are What You Grow”, from this week’s New York Times Magazine:
Click here for a fast reading, easy-to-understand article by Michael Pollan, which shines a light on the flaws, injustices (and worse) in our government’s food policy.

I’ve taken pictures of my gardens, etc., this weekend to commemorate Earth Day. But I decided to post this today, instead.

I call it

“Watch this space”

or
“This space intentionally left blank”

This represents the dismantling of my witness to the church,
and the end of a “grandfathered” era (such as it was).

No one was able to tell me what they did with my stuff.  I’m sure it was thrown out.

 

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Well, here’s one picture from my Earth Day weekend, anyway:

 

 

 

 

I bought some plants, but chose not to plant them, because I wanted to give the earth worms a break on Earth Day.

(Click on the picture above to read a poem I wrote last year, while on retreat. It’s at the bottom half of the linked page.)

“We make animals work for us, carry us, amuse us

and earn money for us.
We also make them die for us, sometimes in ways which
would be rapidly rejected if we could readily see it done.
In many fields we use them, not with gratitude and compassion,
but with thoughtlessness, arrogance, and complete selfishness.”

– from a statement of the Church of England’s Board of Social Responsibility (1970)

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(Today’s post knocked links to some lectures at Wheaton College off the home page.)

Alliance of Religions and Conservation has an interesting interfaith ecological website, in part, because it doesn’t ignore the animal creation, and even includes them in their prayers: http://www.arcworld.org Check it out.

Here are some blurbs I found on their Advent page:

Advent is the Coming of God in Christ to his world. And the coming of the world to God in Christ. For too long we have sought to keep Christ to ourselves. Yet the Lord is creator of all creation, not the property of humanity. He comes to bring light and life into the winter of all creation. His liberation frees not just us but all life. Listen now. Be still and hear. For creation takes up its Maker’s call. All creation draws near to God, seeks refuge from the tightening grip of winter, the winter our destruction has wrought; seeks light and warmth to revive that which we have darkened and chilled by our abuse of God’s creation. Listen to the Voices of Creation, the Advent of nature.

[snip]

Voices of the Creatures: From water, air and land we the creatures came forth at thy command. From dust you raised us and in us planted your life.Through the ways of Time you brought us to Be. Now we come called forth again. Yet many can no longer come. Gone, gone forever. And we, we who come. Can we know our children’s children will know this world? So much has gone. What remains is so frail. Free your people from their ignorance and selfishness.

[snip]

Reader: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” The heart of the Christian Gospel is that the child born in Bethlehem, the man who died on Calvary, is the eternal creator spirit who brought life to be. The Creator has become created and brings creation to its fulfillment. The Advent of Jesus Christ is not just an event of human significance, but of cosmic significance. His salvation and liberation to life eternal is not just for human, but for all life - life which St John the Divine tells us Christ both created and will recreate.

[snip]

Reader: Almighty God, you led your people in the darkness of the desert by a pillar of fire. So Lord, lead us in the night of our darkness and through the deserts of our own making. Creator Spirit, you sent down tongues of fire on your disciples as they hid in their uncertainty. So Lord, enlighten us with your fire that we may serve all creation. Loving Father, you sent your Son to be a light to those who walk in darkness. May we who have brought your creation, the winds, waters, lands, creatures and our own kind to the edge of darkness, see the new path we must tread, through the power of your loving light.

All: Amen.

(Yeah, I know it isn’t close to Advent yet. But why not get a jump on the next season? Besides, Earth Day is coming up soon. This could be modified.)

Also, click here for “Ideas for Services Celebrating the Harvest”.

In answer to a flippant response I received by a die-hard carnivore (and good friend), that we all die of something, after sending an email that a meat-based diet increases the chances of colorectal cancer by 300%, I sent this response on 3/27:

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So, maybe it doesn’t matter what we’ll die of. But I just got a copy of “A New Perspective: The State of Pharmacy in America” which is either a new magazine, or a new name for an old one. I saw a blurb on one page that caught my eye. And then a few others that I thought I’d share….

“In 2004, national health expenditures were $1.9 TRILLION
4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.
Source: National Coalition on Health Care”

PRESCRIPTIONS GALORE

“At least 4.1 billion prescriptions will be dispensed at retail pharmacies in 2010.
Source: National Association of Chain Drug Stores”

“In 2005, the number of per-capita prescriptions filled at U.S. retail pharmacies was 12.3.
Source: Prescription Drug Trends, Kaiser Family Foundation”

“Importation of pharmaceutical products from Canada totaled about $700 million in 2003, versus U.S. Pharmaceutical sales of more than $210 billion. Prescription imports from the rest of the world totaled about $700 million as well.
Sources: Prescription Drug Trends, Kaiser Family Foundation, IMS Nationa Sales Perspectives.”

There are other little factoids, too.

Thinking back to the email I sent over the weekend about colorectal cancer (2nd highest death rate among cancers, not all deaths, by the way) my general attitude is that there is something seriously wrong in our society, when the US population averages 12.3 prescriptions per year (not just the elderly, but a national average), and we spend 4.3 times our defense budget on healthcare, even while we’re in the middle of a war and probably have a higher defense budget than normal. (And people complain about how much our government spends on defense!)

One underlying point I was trying to make was that it is our “patriotic duty” to take some personal responsibility to prevent disease, instead of “maintaining” it, while researchers spend charitable donations testing on animals to “find a cure”. The Baby Boomers are going to bankrupt Medicare.

And since there are respected doctors out there who say we can prevent or reverse major diseases with simple lifestyle changes, why aren’t more people taking a serious look at that?

And this just adds a little fuel to my argument that poor countries can not afford to base a developing economy on animal agriculture, because, for one thing, they can not afford to “maintain” American diseases the way we can “maintain” ours with our pharmaceutical crutches.

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4/1:

I just caught the tail end of this story on 60 Minutes:

“Under the Influence”

I have no confidence in the drug industry, just as I have no confidence in the researchers who get paid the big bucks to torture animals to “find a cure”.

This story makes public an obscene misuse of power. And I can’t help but wonder if it is because the government is in bed with the drug industry, that people lose their Vioxx cases against Merck — to name just one example of what I wonder about.