Bunny Held for Ransom for 1,000,000€

[iLikeMyiMac]

I swear by God, I will have this lovely rabbit for New Year's Eve Dinner
if my account doesn't show a balance of at least 1'000'000 € by latest 31st Dec 2004 !
You can save Bernd!!!
I promise I will not just not eat Bernd but I will also give him to a bunny breeding farm where he can spent the rest of his life as playboy in a way that we would all be jealous of.

Current Balance: 0'032'776€ link (http://www.krohm.net/bernd.htm)
80% goes to charity he gets the rest. Too bad I hadn't thought of that. He already has 6,555 € for himself.

RABBIT STEW
1 three pound rabbit
6 small onions, chopped
1 bay leaf
½ cup chopped celery
2 tsp. salt
2 cups diced carrots
3 raw potatoes, cut up
3 tbs. flour
1 tbs. chopped parsley

Clean rabbit and soak in salted water. Drain, disjoint it in pieces for serving and place in a large kettle with onions, bay leaf, celery and salt. Cover with cold water and cook slowly until tender, about two hours. Add chopped carrots and potatoes and continue cooking until these vegetables are done. Smooth flour with a little cold water and add slowly. When thickened, add chopped parsley and serve.

[Mr. Anderson]

Damn, nice way to get a little cash.....looks like he's going to be having some Hasenpfeffer (http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/getrecipe.zsp?id=73150) for the new year...

D

[jrv3034]

How low will this world sink?

We live in medieval times. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Sure, we have electricity, running water, cars, planes, iPods, but deep down, we're still the same savages that gave a thumbs down in a gladiator arena just to see a slave get his head chopped off.

Don't believe me? Turn on the news. Has anything changed in the last 1,000 years?

I understand that this is a joke... sort of. The sick bastard will probably eat the damn thing if he doesn't get the cash. Even if he doesn't, how can anyone think this is remotely morally acceptable? I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I'm not a vegetarian, but this is sadist. There are probably laws against something like this, and if not, well there should be.

Friggin neanderthal psychos...

Sorry about the rant, but this just really set me off right now. I just got married a couple of months ago. How am I supposed to justify bringing in childen to this world? What do they have to look forward to?

I know you're thinking: Jeez, chill out, it's just a bunny. But where does it stop? Puppies? Horses? Terminally ill elders? (they're gonna die soon, right?) Children born with mental disabilities? (Hey, they're probably better off dead right?) Regular people? You? Me? (We're all gonna die sometime, right?)

Even if he was never going to go through with this, it makes me very angry that somebody would actually THINK of a stunt like this.

I'm going to bed.

EDIT: I think everyone here should see the film "The Green Mile". See the value of a life. Even the smallest mouse.

[Counterfit]

Rabbit tastes like chicken.

Seriously!
So does swordfish...

[JLS]

80%? Get lost.....

[MongoTheGeek]

Rabbit tastes like chicken.

Seriously!
So does swordfish...

Rabbit is mighty tasty.

As for us being in the dark ages less than 100 years ago the guy would have been laughed at by nearly everyone. Mighty expensive rabbit dinner eh?

Yes we are falling into to dark and barbarous times, and perhaps threatening to eat a rabbit is a sign of it, but not for the reasons assumed.

[wordmunger]

Better than the Iraq war. We get to pay $200 billion (and counting), AND thousands die. Personally I will donate to my local charity and eliminate the middleman/rabbit.

[Abstract]

How can this be considered barbaric? A 100 years ago, we could just kill rabbits with guns and nobody would have thought anything of it.

Now, you see this sort of threat, and you think, "Geez, this is wrong." So no, I don't think this world is falling into a s***hole.

[KingSleaze]

Forget the rabbit, if I don't get some money, this powerbook is history.



j/k



Boy, some people have no sense of humor whatever.

[jrv3034]

How can this be considered barbaric? A 100 years ago, we could just kill rabbits with guns and nobody would have thought anything of it.


It isn't the killing of the rabbit that's barbaric. I've eaten rabbit before. Tastes great. My problem is the REASON for killing it. The same problem I have with hunting for sport. If you live in the wilderness and hunt an animal for food and clothing, great. But if you kill the thing "'cause it's cool", then I have a problem. It's like burning up ants with a magnifying glass: childish and sadistic.

I just find the ethics of the ransom problematic, and a symptom of the breakdown of civilized society.

[iLikeMyiMac]

I agree with you that it's sadistic. The guy holding the bunny for ranson is just greedy.
I don't think you can call one person holding a rabbit for ransom a breakdown of society. If more people did it then maybe but one person is not a society.

[Mr. Anderson]

Sadistic - sure, in the use of an innocent looking rabbit to bait you into giving him money.

Rabbit as a menu item can be found pretty much anywhere and you can still hunt rabbits. So in that case its not all that bad.

He's just spinning this for personal gain and I don't find it morally objectional. I wouldn't do it myself, but you have to admit he's making a bit on it and getting some press.

In the end I don't think any amount of money he keeps personally will make up for all the crap he'll have to take for going through with this. Like many people have mentioned in this thread, they think its sick, and I'm sure he'll have to deal with that for a long time.

As for killing animals in general. If you're so upset about this, go look at a chicken farm some day. At least he seems to be treating this rabbit as a pet.....

D

[iLikeMyiMac]

It isn't the killing of the rabbit that's barbaric. I've eaten rabbit before. Tastes great. My problem is the REASON for killing it. The same problem I have with hunting for sport. If you live in the wilderness and hunt an animal for food and clothing, great. But if you kill the thing "'cause it's cool", then I have a problem. It's like burning up ants with a magnifying glass: childish and sadistic.

I just find the ethics of the ransom problematic, and a symptom of the breakdown of civilized society.
Are you saying that hunting is wrong unless you're some kind of wild mountain man who wears the pelt of a deer as a coat?
Hunting for sport is okay as long as you or someone else eats the animal and you don't just leave the carcass to rot where it fell.

[jrv3034]

As for killing animals in general. If you're so upset about this, go look at a chicken farm some day. At least he seems to be treating this rabbit as a pet.....

Which is why I try to buy free-range chicken eggs. ;)

I have no problem killing animals for food. I have no problem eating hamburgers or rabbit stew or gummi bears. I have a problem with, as you said, "the use of an innocent looking rabbit to bait you into giving him money". This is the gripe I have.

You say you wouldn't have done this. That's just my point. You wouldn't, and I wouldn't and any decent person wouldn't. Because deep down, you know it's not right. Apparently this person doesn't.

When I talk about the breakdown of society, I mean that a lot of people here are seeing this as nothing more than a clever idea. Is it clever? Yep. Will it make him money? Sure, it already has! Is it ethically and morally acceptable? I don't think so.

Anyway, people that see this will either think this is in bad taste, or will find it funny, or won't care. I just find the latter two responses medieval and cruel.

[jrv3034]

Are you saying that hunting is wrong unless you're some kind of wild mountain man who wears the pelt of a deer as a coat?
Hunting for sport is okay as long as you or someone else eats the animal and you don't just leave the carcass to rot where it fell.

You're right. If the hunter is using the animal for food (either for themselves or for others), then it's fine. I'm talking about some punk with a rifle shooting a deer or a hawk "just to see if I can".

One sport I really don't get is fishing. Catching a fish just to see how many or how big, and then throwing it back in the water. "Because it's relaxing." I find that barbaric.

[iLikeMyiMac]

You're right. If the hunter is using the animal for food (either for themselves or for others), then it's fine. I'm talking about some punk with a rifle shooting a deer or a hawk "just to see if I can".

One sport I really don't get is fishing. Catching a fish just to see how many or how big, and then throwing it back in the water. "Because it's relaxing." I find that barbaric.
Shooting hawks or any bird of prey is illegial.
But I agree with you on the fishing. If you catch it then keep it unless its under the legal limit. Pulling a fish out of the water with a barbed hook in its mouth then throwing it back in after it flops around on your boat after you try to get the hook out for several min. is probably pretty tramatic to the fish.