This is my Stinky Eric, very very sadly missed.But the loss of Stinky gave me Ferguson. Window closes, door opens
But I have had to put down a rabbit today. Did you know that rabbits are carnivorous? Or more accurately cannabalistic?
I have a hutch with 2 females rabbits in together, which are due for the freezer, but not had a chance to cull them recently. They obviously got in a fight, and this morning I found that one had been pretty much eaten from the back leg across the spine. Overnight.
Yuck - in fact very yuck. Clean thigh bones exposed and spine visible. Worse than anything in Saw.
I hate losing animals even when they are livestock due for my own dinner table and I know they are destined to be killed, it is the senseless loss that upsets me.
Door closes, window opens - I have just discovered one of the other rabbits about to give birth.
Unfortunately with temperatures at -7°C overnight, they don't really stand much chance of surviving.
Rabbits have the capability to absorb their young rather than birth them if the conditions are not right, so for her sake I actually hope that is what she does, but it may be too late. Alternatively she may birth them prematurely, and there will be tiny hairless corpses to dispose of. Just moving her into a hutch indoors out of the extremes of the weather this morning may cause her to abort.
Keeping animals really does teach you a lot about death.
Each tiny death stills affects me, and I hope that it continues to do so.
1 comment:
I heartily agree, death does not bother me but should always garner respect. Even moreso in an animal raised for food as generally it's alloted span will be greatly forestalled.
Even though I was personally involved with processing each chicken this year their death had a little measure of gratification from me. They die that I may live. That under any other circumstance would be heroism.
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