It’s that bunny time of year again! I think all of my buns were born in the spring. Hortencia just turned 7, Tofu 6, Andre 5 and Bebe will be 4 soon! Happy birthday little one’s! I love ya’ll!
Remember to join the Make Mine Chocolate Campaign and get your bunny friends who may not be too savvy on the in’s and out’s of rabbit compaionship the film Equal Hoppertunity for an educational Easter basket prezzie.
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Starring Equal Hoppertunity’s very own Ruth Fledermaus?
Don’t forget: Rescues get a discount!!
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We are currently in Madrid, Spain! It’s a beautiful day here, sunny and warm, perfect! We are going to ride the metro today and then head to Barcelona tomorrow on the AVE which is a super fast train. We are having a hard time getting blogger.com to work, so may be updating via my/this blog!
Cheers!
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You know how I’m not the biggest fan of the film Rabbit Fever (because it’s all about breeders), well Andrea LaRock wrote a review of the film I wanted to share, because it’s very genuine.
I included the link to the HRS site if you want to share it. Let me know what you think or if anyone else has seen the film. View on HRS website: http://www.rabbit.org/fun/rabbitfever.html
by Andrea LaRock
Coming into watching the film Rabbit Fever, I had very little foreknowledge of what the movie was about. I knew it had to do with rabbit shows, which I knew almost nothing about. Of course I have heard of dog & cat shows, which I find distasteful, but at least the animals seem to be fairly well cared for.
As I walked into the tiny theater, I was greeted by gleeful little girls in bunny ears handing me more bunny ears and welcoming me. There were rabbit decorations everywhere and I was immediately excited thinking to myself, oh! Rabbit people! MY people!
Excitement built as I waited in my seat for the film to roll, but before it started there were some brief announcements and the producer herself got up to speak. Then there was a contest with quiz questions about rabbit health, anatomy and so on. I noticed the questions were geared mainly towards breeders.
As the film opens we are introduced to the concept of “Rabbit Royalty”: young people that compete in an annual contest to become “kings”, “queens”, “dukes”, duchesses”, lords” & ladies”, in an organization known as ARBA: The American Rabbit Breeding Association. The competition involves testing their knowledge of rabbit breeds, health, anatomy, as well as their goals in furthering their future careers in ARBA, as veterinarians, breeders, teachers, etc.
As we are introduced at length to each competitor in the ARBA competition, the rabbits themselves are treated as secondary items in the background. During the days-long indoor competition, they are kept in tiny metal cages barely large enough to accommodate their bodies, with almost no room to move around at all. All the floors are metal grids. At “home”, their young caretakers house them in scarcely larger cages, mostly outdoors, exposed to the elements of nature.
It was a reoccurring sight to see these teens walking down rows of rabbit cages “caring for” the rabbits by giving them their once or twice daily food & water. They receive little to no human interaction. They are not bonded with each other, and since they are to be “bred” and are not fixed, they are kept separated until time to mate. Brief mention is made of their personalities, but it is treated as a novelty for human entertainment rather than indication of intelligence, soul, or emotional value. I could simply look into the eyes and faces of these rabbits and my heart broke inside my chest at the loneliness and resignation.
The film introduced an adult breeder named Joe Kim. He picked up one rabbit by his ears and carried him upside down. I can imagine how terrifying this was for the poor rabbit and honestly it is amazing that he did not break his back doing this to him. Someone with years of experience handling rabbits should know better than this. Joe’s philosophy is that rabbits are serve no purpose other than for entertainment. He joked, laughing heartily, about making one of his male rabbits breed so much his penis became very sore and injured. He referred to one rabbit whose features were not specifically “perfect” to her breed, as, “flawed”. The way one might speak of an object, a cracked china bowl or a stained cashmere sweater.
They introduced several breeders. One was a millionaire banker turned rabbit breeder with a couple hundred rabbits. Another named Paula breeds Angora rabbits for their wool, and I do not object to that, except they are kept in wire cages with metal floors, which of course cause sore hocks on delicate soft rabbit feet. Another one talked about how some of the rabbits are sold for meat. My bun Luke was considered an imperfect Harlequin Rabbit because of his markings. I love him more than anything in the world. The film segued back to the competition and to the ASBRA King competitors. As the guys looked over the rabbits and were judged on how they evaluated the rabbits, one remarked that they have high expectations of the rabbits. Another said casually, picking the bunny up and setting him back down, “This one is no good.”
One competitor summed his experience up this way: There is only one reason to have a rabbit. To win at a show or to breed a winner. The rabbits are kept in shoebox-sized metal cages with no room at all to move or turn around for hours and hours during this competition, in an enormous, loud, noisy, packed, indoor arena full of hundreds possibly over a thousand people, and a recorded 21,000 rabbits. They are picked up, manhandled roughly, examined, (“hoe to toe” judging) and shoved back into their cages dozens of times by dozens of people over the course of the day. For those of us that know rabbits…any single of these elements is unthinkably traumatic, but all together in one or many days is beyond my mind.
On one young lady’s face you could see it was bothering even her as she remarked, “…this is a lot to ask of these rabbits, it’s a lot to ask of any rabbit…”
There was only one moment in this film where I was not crying, which was when they showed a male rabbit having an orgasm: He did his lil humpity hump and then flipped backwards in the air. That made me laugh just because it was so cute, and he was happy for a second anyway, sweet little boy.
Andre! He was used to breed constantly before being rescued
The theater was filled with 4H folks, breeders, & show people. Everyone laughed and cheered through the entire film, while I sat there shaking my head and sobbing through the whole thing. I don’t know if anyone thought I was crazy or not. I was nearly sick with grief and could hardly even stay to the end. It is hard to explain for me how the film was, but it was so opposite of everything I believe in. It was like watching your children being exploited, molested, mocked and used as objects with no regard for their comfort or feelings.
After the movie there was an intermission and the director Amy Do was to take questions for the crowd. Knowing how outnumbered I was and over emotional I was I could not stay. I wish I were a better stronger person to ask her questions but I could not. And I do not know what good it would have done anyway.
For me this film was as traumatic as a horror film. It is so disturbing, so alarming and what is worse is this is a segment of the country seen as wholesome and positive for young people.
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Also; THERE ARE ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT OF THIS CAMPAIGN!!!
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Well today starts the 10 day count down to the end of our kickstarter campaign for Trains-Forming America. We are officially only 18% funded with $1,825.00.00. I’m still proud of raising this much money and I’ve learned a lot about fund-raising in the past few weeks. It’s hard! I can honestly tell you that I have been working as hard as I can on this project. Filming, meeting with transportation experts, calling and emailing railroad societies,thinking of creative vignettes to get people interested (ie: the Save April promo’s)
I feel so blessed to have such supportive friends and family who have pledged just because they know how much I love making documentaries. I think some people would’ve given even if I was making a film about different types of toupee’. And that means a lot to me.
The thing about this subject is that the more I’ve researched about high speed rail the more passionate I’m getting about the topic and the more I want to be able to finish the film! A lot of you may not know how expensive it is to make a film. I spent (and am still spending) my own money on my first film, Equal Hoppertunity. I can do that only because I believe in it. I learned a lot making that film and know that I want Trains-Forming America to have a better production quality, which is why I need a bigger budget.
I still feel like it’s possible we’ll make our goal, and it will be because of people like Eush Tayco, and Kara Ohugushee writing tumblr blogs about it that get reblogged!
So, even though I’m getting discouraged that we are so far from our goal I am also hopeful. I’ve added another backer incentive to kickstarter that I’m hoping will spark your interest and get you excited about joining this campaign to change the way we think about transportation in America. If you pledge 40.00 or more you’ll get the opportunity to share your views on this topic with the possibility of making the final cut of the film!
I want to address some FAQ’s about kickstarter.com- Kickstarter is an Amazon company and therefore a very secure website. Your card will only be charged if we make our goal, if we don’t make our goal we don’t get any money at all. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that you can write us a check, email us on more information about that or if you could use a copy of the press release at trainsformingamerica@gmail.com
If we don’t make our goal I’ll definitely have re-assess the project and probably put it on hold. But we do still have over a week to make our goal and a lot can happen in that amount of time, so I’m going to be hopeful and just cross that bridge after April 16th.
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Personally, I have never tasted the convenience of efficient and convenient rail travel in my daily routine. I have never lived in a place where I can exit my home, just hop on a train and minutes later be walking distance from my destination. But I do know that this phenomenon exists around the country and the world.
Through my travels to Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Taiwan—even India, I can tell you that this way of traveling from point A to point B, exists. And once I realized it was possible and common, living in cities that do not have these systems (Minneapolis, MN, DeKalb, IL, Chapel Hill, NC, Asheville, NC), it has been frustrating knowing what I’ve been missing. And it has been frustrating knowing that the bills that could create better infrastructures involving cities I live or lived in, have been detested so fiercely by portions of the public.
Take, for instance, the recent debate within many states and their allotted high-speed rail funds. They’ve been given this money by the government and they’re refusing to use the funds. Florida didn’t have use for the $2.4 billion it was given, Wisconsin said “no” to its $810 million, and Ohio says it can do without its allotted $385 million. Now, North Carolina (my state of residence) seems to be on the fence about our $545 million.[i] The politicians are fighting to put the money into a general fund, teeth bared and grit at the mention of high-speed infrastructure, saying it would be better use of the money to just improve the already existing trains.
The argument is almost logical, until you realize that the government has done its homework. According to the Department of Energy, while fuel efficiency in cars and airplanes have improved significantly in the past 10 years, Amtrak’s fuel efficiency has only increased by one-tenth of 1 percent per year.[ii] Meaning, of course, that to continue dumping millions into our out-of-date, moderate-speed train-system would be to support a non-adapting system by current competitive environmental standards.
In the next 10 or 20 years from now, driving or flying would be more fuel efficient than our moderate-speed trains, as train technology wouldn’t have even tried to compete with the innovative technology put into other forms of transportation (hybrid cars, more aero-dynamic planes). [iii] On the current trajectory, the next two decades would see trains that wouldn’t even have the capacity to save any energy at all. In fact, they would require more energy than current standards, to achieve competing high-speeds.
The train of thought (if you don’t mind my pun) of the begrudging politicians could be compared to wanting to upgrade a huge clunky computer from year 2000, and expecting it to compete with the new, sleek and powerful computers created today; that you can carry everywhere, work on it anywhere. 500 trillion gigabytes in the palm of your hand, against a table-top monitor the size of a television on your desk, and a gigantic tower beneath it with a “powerful” 50 megabytes that takes a truck to move. It just doesn’t work.
We’re in a different time, full of amazing possibilities. It is no longer logical to just upgrade the current US train infrastructure, it’s time for new trains. So here we are. We are handed funds, and we are (come on, NC!) letting it slip through our fingers. It is incredibly heart-breaking, especially when we can see countries all over the world making their own investments in innovative and efficient rail technology.
Take China, for instance. Here’s a country that, according to the US Census Bureau, is expected to have a population decrease in the next 40 years, and they just invested $360 billion in its new high-speed rail infrastructure; their newest trains averaging speeds more than 200 miles per hour. [iv] Contrast it with the US, with a population that is expected to grow by another 100 million in the next 40 years,[v] a country that is also dealing with extreme economical and environmental concerns, and a rapidly-aging highway system; does it make sense as to why the US—as a whole—is not taking similar, and even more necessary steps to support and accommodate for this gigantic population increase? These people will want/need to travel to work.
Of course, not only are these other countries taking steps to accommodate for larger portions of their populations, but they are hurdling—leaping and bounding!—forward in the development of even more efficient and even faster rail technology.
Out of the top fastest trains ever invented in the world, Germany, France, Japan, and China take turns “one-upping” each other. Starting as early as 1986 when Germany developed a train that topped at 350 mph during a test run, these countries have increased their speeds model by model until Japan broke the presiding record with a winning 361 mph with their MLX01 in 2003.[vi]
No where on this list does the US stand; in fact, our fastest train tops out at less than half the speed of most of these trains. Amtrak’s Acela Express, which travels between Boston and Washington DC, is the US’s “claim to fame.” It tops out at a whopping 150 mph.[vii] Not incredibly impressive.
Economic woes, public job concerns, and whatever else the dissenters have listed as reasons to refuse high-speed rail funding in the US, don’t seem to be large enough concerns, to stop other countries from investing in these new high-speed rail systems.
I must mention, that in addition to those already listed, India, Brazil, Argentina, and Morocco have also jumped on board in the past year[viii]—countries that are not typically associated with being technologically innovative with its transportation infrastructures.
So again, I ask you, India is doing it, why not us? Brazil is doing it, why not us? Argentina, Morocco. China. Why not US? It just doesn’t make sense not to. Support your local representatives that support high-speed rail.
Spread the word about Trains-Forming America. We hope to be a part of the driving force that backs the new rail system. All aboard!
[i] “Look Who’s Derailing High-Speed Rail,” by Bill Chameides, Huffpost Green, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/look-whos-derailing-high_b_841918.html [ii] The True Cost of High Speed Rail is more than $500 Billion,” by Jay Yarrow, Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-true-cost-of-a-high-speed-rail-for-the-us-is-more-than-500-billion-2009-5 [iii] The True Cost of High Speed Rail is more than $500 Billion,” by Jay Yarrow, Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-true-cost-of-a-high-speed-rail-for-the-us-is-more-than-500-billion-2009-5 [iv] International Data Base, US Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/rank.php [v]“Bringing High-Speed Rail to America,” by Tobin Marcus, The White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/08/bringing-high-speed-rail-america [vi] “The Wide Angle: 10 High Speed Trains,” by Jonathan Strickland, Discovery Channel, http://dsc.discovery.com/technology/tech-10/high-speed-trains/10-high-speed-trains.html [vii] “The Wide Angle: 10 High Speed Trains,” by Jonathan Strickland, Discovery Channel, http://dsc.discovery.com/technology/tech-10/high-speed-trains/10-high-speed-trains.html [viii] “Look Who’s Derailing High-Speed Rail,” by Bill Chameides, Huffpost Green, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/look-whos-derailing-high_b_841918.html
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