Calling All Christians: Live Rabbits Are Not for Children...Not Even for Easter
In the spirit of Easter, many well-meaning parents purchase live rabbits, at pet stores, as gifts for their children. Live rabbits are a huge responsibility and they are very incompatible with children. Younger children are at a developmental stage that is not copasetic with rabbits. The children explore things with their hands, often by grabbing. Naturally they exuberantly hug and squeeze that which is cute and seemingly cuddly. In reality live rabbits are very fragile and instinctively feel threatened when held, squeezed or hugged. This proves to be unsafe for the child and the rabbit. Rabbits are not docile, which can cause the children to loose interest after Easter. Unfortunately parents often don't have access to this information before purchasing the rabbit(s) and after Easter thousands of bunnies over crowd animal shelters and many are euthanised.
As Christians I believe we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Easter we can honor the blood he shed for us and help him to spare the lives of one of his most sensitive and delicate creatures. We can do this without discounting the popular Easter symbol we all know and love. Here are some alternatives to live rabbits as Easter gifts:
1) A cuddly plush rabbit toy is a wonderful gift for a child. They can hug their plush rabbit without injury, a plush toy does not need to be feed or brushed, no droppings to clean up (live rabbit droppings are frequent and plentiful!), a plush rabbit is not destructive, will participate in tea parties and most importantly if the child looses interest the plush
rabbit will not be lonely or neglected.
2) A great Christian service activity to honor our Lord Jesus is to take your children to a local animal shelter or rescue to visit and feed greens to the resident rabbits. This is very educational and teaches children Christ-like compassion for one of God's creatures. This is a great addition to a plush rabbit gift especially if your child has been begging for a live bunny. This way your child will see first hand the effects of having a rabbit as a pet without understanding the commitment. As a family you can also make a conscious and educated choice to bring a rabbit into your home, if you decide it is feasible. Shelters and rescues are great educational resources to help you decide if an animal is right for your family.
4) Educational Toys are appropriate for children. One may believe that a pet bunny is an educational experience. Children learn through trial and error/success and failure. The natural developmental learning process of a child is detrimental to an animal.
Genesis 1:30
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
Psalm 36:6
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD , you preserve both man
Reference information for this article comes from House Rabbit Society
Published by KidFairy
I have a background in Early Childhood Education. I produce Socially Conscious Children's Media. I am also happy and proud to be a Discovery Toys Educational Consultant. I am owed by 3 bunnies and 2 cats. View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentGood article, KidFairy. Pets are not toys, and people need to understand that, especially Christians who are supposed to care about God's creation. Besides, just like A.J.King has commented, rabbit/hare is not a Christian symbol for Easter to begin with, it has pagan origins.
Anyway, thanks for a good article, and keep them coming!
Actually, an easier way to tell Christians not to purchase rabbits is to remind them that "Easter", the word itself, is derived from a Latin pagan name of a fertility goddess. She was worshipped during the Spring equinox in Germanic areas of northern Europe. Her symbol was a hare, or rabbit... It also explains where the tradition of painting eggs came from. The egg is one of the most recognizable symbols of fertility. The Church wanted to stamp out pagan tradition by inserting the date Jesus's birth near the Winter Soltice, and his death near the Spring equinox. What ended up happening is Christian and pagan tradtions became intertwined.