Thursday, June 19, 2008

Remember savetoby.com?

Poster Jackie Lynn brought this up in my previous post about suburban/rural rabbit hunting. Do you all remember the website Save Toby? The site was notorious in 2005 because its author threatened to kill a cute little bunny named Toby if visitors to the site didn't donate $50,000 to his paypal account. (You could give to the cause by simply leaving a donation or by buying merchandise that said "Save Toby.") Had the money not come in by June 30, 2005, he said he would take Toby to the butcher's to be slaughtered for food.

If you go to the site now, you'll see a notice that Toby is safe; enough money was raised. ... But remnants of its controversial days remain. There is a picture of Toby in a pot, presumably one which he would have been boiled in. There are recipes for different ways to prepare Toby.
Here's an article from MSNBC about the controversy—I don't think it will surprise anyone that animal rights activists didn't like savetoby.com.

I guess I thought the site's owner was joking all along, and it got blown out of proportion. I never took it seriously. But maybe he really would have killed Toby. If that had been the case, maybe it makes it a little better that he planned to eat the rabbit, but it still smacks of extortion if it all was real.

3 comments:

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Shai W. Thanatos said...

it was a rather clever and comical way to raise money. good on ya mate.

and also, so what if he did kill the bunny and eat it. no one who eats meat has any right to complain. why are cute animals worth any more than ugly ones?

now, i couldnt have done it, but whatever right?

Jessica Knapp said...

Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt about it at the time. And somehow, I don't think he ever intended to kill the rabbit.

I agree. It should not be worse to eat cute animals than non-cute animals. I think, maybe beyond it just being cute, a lot of meat-eaters also don't think much about where their meat comes from. I probably do too much, which is why I don't eat a whole lot of meat. So the combination of it being cute and having the methods of its death thrown in people's faces was just too much for some.