Thank you for adding to this discussion, this is a very good comment.
Those are good concerns and definitely something to keep in mind but I’m 99.999% confident that the specific bun pictured is absolutely fine and is very much still mobile, that it was just more sluggish than usual due to overeating. It was posed, alert, and ready to bounce away at high speed if I had gone closer instead of keeping on my usual path. It was gone when I passed by again a little later.
In general, I don’t personally approve of handling real wild animals, and would not intervene in its demise unless there was a very good reason to do so.
I respect that! That’s a personal ethical decision, to intervene or not, but most naturalists I think believe it’s best to not interfere as you upset the balance - you’re at least depriving something of a meal or may need to survive if you intervene.
In our case, we knew Mrs. Bun was a semi-domesticated bunny; my wife would feed her rabbit treats by hand, of she was in our yard. And if an any animal is injured obviously because of humans - birds striking a window, for example - I’ll intervene and try to save the animal. But I wouldn’t try to stop a fox from taking a rabbit; that’s nature doing its thing. I would stop a coyote from taking one of our cats - if we let them outside, which we don’t - but that’s saving family.
Humans and our complex ethical and moral structures, huh?
Thank you for adding to this discussion, this is a very good comment.
Those are good concerns and definitely something to keep in mind but I’m 99.999% confident that the specific bun pictured is absolutely fine and is very much still mobile, that it was just more sluggish than usual due to overeating. It was posed, alert, and ready to bounce away at high speed if I had gone closer instead of keeping on my usual path. It was gone when I passed by again a little later.
In general, I don’t personally approve of handling real wild animals, and would not intervene in its demise unless there was a very good reason to do so.
I respect that! That’s a personal ethical decision, to intervene or not, but most naturalists I think believe it’s best to not interfere as you upset the balance - you’re at least depriving something of a meal or may need to survive if you intervene.
In our case, we knew Mrs. Bun was a semi-domesticated bunny; my wife would feed her rabbit treats by hand, of she was in our yard. And if an any animal is injured obviously because of humans - birds striking a window, for example - I’ll intervene and try to save the animal. But I wouldn’t try to stop a fox from taking a rabbit; that’s nature doing its thing. I would stop a coyote from taking one of our cats - if we let them outside, which we don’t - but that’s saving family.
Humans and our complex ethical and moral structures, huh?