Moral blackmail

Here’s something strangely repulsive. Quentin pointed me towards a site run by a man who claims to have found an injured, young rabbit under a porch one day, and then nursed it back to health. He then named the rabbit Toby. This individual swears that he will have Toby butchered and served for dinner on June 30, 2005, unless he is able to raise $50,000 in donations or merchandise sales. If he is able to raise the money, he promises that Toby will have the life of Riley until he dies a natural death. The site provides the story of the bunny’s rescue, photos (one of which shows Toby sitting in a cooking pot), possible recipes and answers to questions (some dealing with the legality of the website and the underlying idea). Rob Parsons has written an interesting commentary on this ingenious attempt to part animal lovers from their cash. Apparently he’s raised $18,000 already. But PayPal have cancelled his account after protests from a rabbit sanctuary,