Before getting ready to go out yesterday, i spotted a wild rabbit in my yard eating the dandelions. I watched for a while, and a second one joined in. They didn't fight, but they did seem to not 'know' each other, dancing around each other and checking each other out. I take it as a good sign when i see wild bunnies being happy, and it usually does a pretty good job of making me smile, at least for a little while. In the may issue of National Geographic, there is an infographic of how many animals of different types that were killed for food in 2009, and there were 1.1 billion (with a B) rabbits, that doesn't even count those tested on for makeup, drugs, weapons testing, and for the fur, and whatever else people do to them. Did you know that the human HPV vaccine was found because of them? Sometimes the wild rabbits around here have symptoms of
Shope papilloma virus (the rabbit version of HPV, the H stands for Human by the way), and it was the study of the rabbit version that lead to the human vaccine. Sadly didn't really lead to any help for the rabbits, i am leery to even let them play outside as the rabbit version can be spread by mosquitos and other insects that feed on blood. Anyway, people seem to assume the only reason i care about them is because they are cute, but there are many, many reasons, and knowing more about what we do to them and they have done for us makes me love them more.
