Former "Bachelor" contestant Bekah Martinez argues that letting her children raise and cuddle rabbits that will eventually be slaughtered isn't "cruel," as her Instagram followers claim.
“Just because you’re not used to something doesn’t mean it’s wrong!” Martinez tells TODAY.com.
The reality star rattled Instagram after sharing a photo of her daughters Ruth, 4, and Frankie, 2, holding rabbits. “I have to remind them every day that we’re going to eat them eventually,” she wrote. “It’s more of a reminder to myself than anything.”
Martinez, whose home includes a chicken coop, was called by commenters of her post "compassionless" and "unhinged" for letting her children establish a bond with the rabbits before consumption; others shrugged it off as "ethical and environmentally friendly" and a usual practice among farming families.
"I respect teaching them where their food comes from," a commenter mediated. "I just think they shouldn’t be allowed to bond or play with the animals if they are going to be food."
Martinez tells TODAY.com, "Yes, we are raising rabbits for meat. We actually try to keep handling to a minimum as it’s stressful for the rabbits. My only comment is this is a super common practice around the world and in homesteading and 4H communities in the United States."
On Instagram, Martinez answered to a comment that her parenting was "incredibly traumatizing."
"If the biggest source of my kids’ trauma is from eating rabbits, I’ll consider my parenting job well done," she wrote.
Martinez and her husband Grayston Leonard addressed the upset in a different Instagram post.
"When people think it's wrong to let my kids bond with our meat rabbits but I posted about our kids playing with the chickens for over a year and no one batted an eye when we ate them," she captioned her video.
In a May 9 Instagram story, Martinez pointed out, "It's just interesting because it seems that people's morals and ethics are really swayed by the cuteness of animals."
To anyone using phrases like "torture," "trauma" and "dangerous" to describe her parenting, Martinez added in a story caption:
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