Year of the Rabbit: Deadly start for impulse pet buys

Buying animals on impulse is usually a bad idea for starters because people don't fully understand about caring for the rabbit and what is involved. Pet rabbits are then often given up because they are not what they expected and have special needs.. I really like to push information on correct rabbit care to everyone and tell you to do your research before purchasing a rabbit..  Unwanted rabbits must never be dumped or released into the wild ( or Universities ) for that matter ! 

Taobao.com is one site where online vendors sell bunnies online and has sold 89 rabbits in the past week at 30 yuan (US$4.5) each. But according to customer comments, many pets died in transit or shortly after arrival. :( Many of the vendors will not give a refund unless the dead animal is returned which is also illegal to send dead animals in the mail... read more  I tried to translate the website and do a search for live pets but I think they have possibly been banned since releasing of these news articles. :)
I think sending bunnies in the post is a hideous thing to do! Rabbits can die so easily from heat stroke and I'm wondering what water and food they are getting during transport, and with poor ventilation and going to the bathroom in the box would most likely cause suffocation. It is actually illegal to post live animals this way and the boxes are supposably labelled as Fragile - Glass.  Some deliveries take 5 days which is terrible as rabbits need to eat constantly. Correct feeding and diet is so important for them. I feel sick when I think about the poor buns being mailed that way. Rabbits also get easily stressed and can die easily from shock, so death is highly likely from transporting rabbits this way :(

 Buying a rabbit online before seeing the bunny is not always a smart idea as you don't get to see what it's health or temperament is really like. It is recommended that rabbits are purchased from a trusted breeder. Bunnies that have not been handled from a young age can often have temperament issues and more likely to be scared of being picked up and handled, which can result in an unfriendly bunny.

Buying Roxanne was definately not an impulse buy for me as I had planned to get her over a year ago was just waiting for the right bunny to be bred .  It just happened that I got her just before Year of the Rabbit is to begin, which is a co-incidence! :) .. (incase you were wondering).. 

READ ARTICLE -

Article Shared : CNN

Dead rabbits are showing up in Chinese mailboxes as pets ordered for the Year of the Rabbit aren’t surviving the shipping process, the Shanghai Daily reports.

The Year of the Rabbit commences on February 3 under the Chinese lunar calendar and bunnies are in demand to celebrate it. One online search showed more than 600 vendors selling rabbits at prices from 15 to 2,000 yuan ($2.25 to $300), Shanghai Daily reported.

But, the paper said, the rabbits can spend five days in shipment and many have suffocated or frozen to death in the small boxes in which they are sent.

At least one vendor had stopped shipments because of the deaths, the paper reported.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement from its Shanghai office on Friday urging people not to bring a rabbit into their home for the Chinese New Year.

"Rabbits aren't just cute and fluffy - they're high-maintenance animals who require significant resources, equipment, attention and veterinary care," PETA’s Maggie Chen said in a statement.

"Rabbits are complex animals, and potential caretakers - who often purchase the animals on a whim - rarely understand the specific needs of their new companions," the statement said. “Once the novelty has worn off, many bunnies are neglected, dumped at animal shelters, or simply turned loose in the wild.”

That’s the problem an ocean away from China at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

The school is saying unwanted pet rabbits dumped on its campus after February 28 will be killed, according to a report in the Victoria Times Colonist.

The university has been trying to rid its campus of the creatures for two years because of damage to landscaping and playing fields, according to the Times Colonist report. More than 800 have been trapped and moved to sanctuaries, it said.

But people are still seeing the campus as a place to dump their pets so the university is adopting the get-tough policy.

“While UVic is willing to dedicate some resources to rabbit removal, it is unrealistic for the university to divert funding to this task in perpetuity,” facilities management director Tom Smith told the paper.

Read article : http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/21/year-of-the-rabbit-deadly-start-for-impulse-pet-buys/?hpt=C2

-------------------------------------

Related NEWS: 
Misery of Online Trade in Rabbits

UVic wants to get rid of all rabbits at its campus

-------------------------------------

Related Blog Post: 2011: Year of The Rabbit

FLOCKALPSE!

Mystery of Mass Bird and Fish Deaths

Flockalypse? Why did millions of black birds drop from the sky and fish wash up dead over New Years 2011? Was it a mere coincidence, what killed them and caused for so many 911 reports. Is this the end of the world, or just a lot of dead things ?

VIDEO : Sky News -

 MORE VIDEO: Dead Birds Rain on US Town

---------------------------

Article Shared From NINEMSN News

(with video)

Thousands of birds that fell dead from the sky on New Year's Eve in the US most likely died after they were frightened by loud noises, a bird expert says.

Residents in Beebe, Arkansas were alarmed when blackbirds began dropping from the sky shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, mysteriously piling up on homes and gardens.

A state ornithologist has found the redwing blackbirds suffered trauma injuries indicating they had flown into something, USA Today reports.

"The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages," Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said.

The state is also testing the birds to see if they were killed by chemicals or diseases.

Ms Rowe said those in the neighbourhood heard around 12 loud booming noises on New Year's Eve.

"They reported it sounding like a cannon on transformer exploding," she said.

State veterinarian George Badley said a resident saw a huge flock of frantic birds when he went outside to investigate the noises.

"He could hear the blackbirds fluttering around — he could hear their wings and he could hear them hitting into things," Badley said.

Blackbirds have poor night vision and they were likely killed because they banged into houses and trees in their fright.

The state is still investigating what caused the noises.

It is believed that the blackbird flock was frightened by the noises but would not fly up too high because of fireworks in the sky, Ms Rowe said.

"They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls," Ms Rowe said.

Wildlife officers went to investigate reports that dead birds were falling from the sky at about 11pm on New Year's Eve.

"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," the Game and Fish Commission's Keith Richards said.

Environmental Services officers picked up more than 2000 dead birds, mostly in the Windwood neighbourhood.

Mr Stephens said it was thought that more than 3000 birds died.

Redwing blackbirds are native to North America and tend to gather in large flocks during winter.

It was not a good weekend for wildlife in Arkansas.

Hundreds of thousands of fish were found dead in the Arkansas River about 200 kilometres away from Beebe a day before the birds were killed, KARK news reported.

Officials believe they were killed by disease because only one species — drum fish — was affected.

READ ARTICLE: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8191523

--------------------------

MORE VIDEO:

News Video | Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:07:00 +1100 | Duration 1m 13s

The mystery of the recent mass bird death in Arkansas is spreading, with hundreds found in Louisiana and also Sweden.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/06/3107647.htm

Ghost Marriage : In sickness & in health.. or even after death?

In China, death doesn’t necessarily stop one from getting married. In the Chinese tradition of ghost marriage, one or both of the parties are dead. Chinese ghost marriage was usually set up by the family of the deceased and performed for a number of reasons, including: the marriage of a couple previously engaged before one member’s death, to integrate an unmarried daughter into a patrilineage,  to ensure the family line is continued,  or to maintain that no younger brother is married before an elder brother. 

Article Shared From Neatorama: 

There are many practical reasons to marry a dead spouse. For example, when an unmarried woman has no children to take care of her in old age, she can be "married" into another family. If a son died before he has descendants, his parents can arrange a ghost marriage to provide a "wife" who remains chaste, as a pretext to adopt a grandson to continue the family line. Another reason is to give the deceased a "spouse and companion" in the afterlife.

How is a ghost marriage performed?
Singapore Paranormal Investigators has the story:

Next, the priest empowered the East Gate with a lighted joss paper folded in the shape of a cone, which is also known as the "fire brush". Soon after this, the priest struck the paper gate three times with the sword and declared the gate to be opened at his order. At the same time, the family members were to shout out the name of the deceased. Finally, the priest declared, "From the East Gate, out you come" The whole atmosphere became very tense as the ceremony was going on. After the "destruction" of all the gates, the priest took a paper effigy out from the centre of the squared shape model. This meant that the spirit had been rescued from the gates of hell.

The paper effigy was placed in front of the altar by the priest. Beside the paper effigy, there was another effigy which was much taller and larger in size. Madam Tham continued to explain to SPI, "The paper effigy which was just rescued from hell represents the current state of the spirit, she carries the illness and sufferings she had when she was alive. The much larger paper effigy next to her represents the healthier form. The priest will soon heal her spirit and she will regain her original healthy form again."

The ceremony: Presiding Taoist priest Lu Rong Xin lights up incense straws in front of paper effigies of the bridal couple.
The pair of white-faced lovers are then prayed over and manipulated like large Barbie dolls,  bent over to take their vows in front of temple gods. Photos - Singapore Paranormal Investigators

Requests from the afterworld
Ghost marriages are often set up by request of the spirit of the deceased, who, upon "finding itself without a spouse in the other world," causes misfortune for its natal family, the family of its betrothed,  or for the family of the deceased’s married sisters. "This usually takes the form of sickness by one or more family members. When the sickness is not cured by ordinary means, the family turns to divination and learns of the plight of the ghost through a séance."

More benignly, a spirit may appear to a family member in a dream and request a spouse. Marjorie Topley, in "Ghost Marriages Among the Singapore Chinese: A Further Note," relates the story of one fourteen-year old Cantonese boy who died. A month later he appeared to his mother in a dream saying that he wished to marry a girl who had recently died in Ipoh, Perak. The son did not reveal her name, but his mother used a Cantonese female spirit medium and "through her the boy gave the name of the girl together with her place of birth and age, and details of her horoscope which were subsequently found to be compatible with his.

Other instances of ghost marriage
Because Chinese custom dictates that younger brothers should not marry before their elder brothers, a ghost marriage for an older, deceased brother may be arranged just prior to a younger brother’s wedding to avoid "incurring the disfavour of his brother’s ghost."  Additionally, in the days of immigration, ghost marriages were used as a means to "cement a bond of friendship between two families." However, there have been no recent cases reported.

READ MORE:

More on 'Ghost Marriage' from WIKIPEDIA

SPI: Ghost Marriage