NY Times advises, “Don’t Tell the Kids.”

Have you ever read an article so outrageous that you have to question it’s authenticity to ensure it isn’t a spoof?  Hip-Hop Cuisine – Rabbit for Dinner, is one such NY Times piece.  The article written by Kim Severson appears to be an article on a class on slaughtering, skinning, and dressing rabbits in a parking lot behind a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Severson starts out by saying:

“RABBITS are supposed to be easy to kill. The French dispatch them with a sharp knife to the throat. A farmer in upstate New York swears that a swift smack with the side of the hand works. Others prefer a quick twist of the neck.  It didn’t seem so easy at the rabbit-killing seminar held in a parking lot behind Roberta’s restaurant in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn in November.  The idea was to place the rabbit on its belly on straw-covered asphalt, press a broomstick across the back of its neck and swiftly yank up the rear legs. Done right, it’s a quiet and quick end. But it takes a little skill and a lot of fortitude, which some of the novices lacked.”

The NY Times sent someone to cover a bunny rabbit killing seminar- where there were (thankfully) only 9 participants, and then tells you not to “tell the kids.”  I mean, is this for real?  You know what?  I’m just going to quote from the article.

“For people learning to butcher at home, a rabbit is less daunting to cut up than a pig or a goat. And those who are truly obsessed with knowing where their food comes from can raise it themselves.”

And…

“Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn had rabbit on some menus shortly after it opened in late 2008. But after a table of guests walked out, it came off. Now the only rabbit served at the restaurant is disguised in a country terrine.”

Disguising it? Why disguise it, hmmm?

“Rabbit is also becoming popular among those with an interest in raising farm animals but without much space or experience.  Sure, rabbits can be fragile.  They get scared and have heart attacks. Heat or the cold can knock them off…But they breed like, well, you know.  That means they produce a lot of meat for not much money.”

Ah, yes.  The age old green light to exploit an animal because it’s “cheap.”

“Ever since the Victorians began keeping them as pets, the relationship between the rabbit and the table has been uneasy.”

I believe this is known as “Moral Schizophrenia.”

“I went from two to 2,000 in no time,” he said. Not that he butchers 2,000 rabbits every week. Usually, it’s about 100. But he is preparing to quadruple the number of breeding rabbits he keeps, making chefs in the Bay Area happy.”

And finally, my favorite…

“Angelina Lippert, the woman who took an Abercrombie & Fitch bag and her boyfriend to the class in Brooklyn…The killing itself was a little more intense than she had expected, she said.  “When I was the first person to volunteer to break the neck, it all seemed so easy and emotionless that I didn’t realize until after I’d done it that I was shaking,” she said.  But she recovered quickly. After all, there was a rabbit to dress.”

So, let me just ask one thing.  If there is nothing wrong with teaching people how to slaughter, skin, and dress bunnies in a parking lot of a restaurant– then it shouldn’t be a problem if we” tell our children all about it, right?

via nytimes.com