 Pet rabbit killed and cooked
Gardiner, NY (US)Date: Jan 3, 2005
County: Ulster
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Mark Wallace
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A Gardiner man is facing felony charges after cooking his roommate's pet rabbit and then eating the animal, police said.
Mark Wallace of South Mountain Road in Gardiner, is accused of cooking his roommate's pet rabbit and then eating the animal, police said. Wallace's roommate had kept the rabbit for years in an outside hutch. The beloved bunny had a name and was regarded as a companion domestic animal, Ulster County sheriff's deputies said.
While the roommate was out, Wallace, 40, killed, gutted and baked the rabbit as a meal, deputies said. He managed a few bites of his dinner before the roommate came home.
Deputies had no information on the particular type of rabbit or whether the roommate had ever raised rabbits for market.
Goshen psychologist Dean Scher said even if Wallace was a regular hunter and regarded rabbits as a food source, there is no case in which eating a roommate's pet could be considered normal.
"It's a pretty extreme action." said Scher a practicing psychologist for 30 years. "It's an interpersonal violation ... like saying, 'I'm the boss. I ate your rabbit and I could eat you.'"
While local rabbit breeders legally raise the animals for meat with no problem, rabbits that shift to the pet category are held to a different standard.
Wallace was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony. The charge was not based on the way the animal was killed, but on its status as a family pet, deputies said.
Wallace was arraigned in New Paltz Court and released, pending a Jan 5 appearance in Gardiner Town Court. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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