By: Hillary Brenhouse 
Rabbits being displayed for sale at a sidewalk market in Bogor city, West Java, ahead of the Year of the Rabbit festivities which begin on February 3 / ROMEO GACAD / AFP / Getty Images
2011 is, by the Chinese zodiac cycle, the Year of the Rabbit, which is far worse news for baby bunnies than you might imagine.
As China hippity-hops into the Lunar New Year, street vendors, pet shops and flower stalls across the mainland (and in other parts of Asia) are selling infant rabbits en masse. To meet a surging demand for the little furballs, the prices of which have been significantly raised, vendors often wrench them from their mothers much too early.
Rarely do the bunnies, once purchased, survive the trip home. Those that do make it are usually abandoned by owners who very quickly tire of their new pets.
(See TIME's top 10 animal stories of 2010.)
Web retailers have also jumped on the bunny bandwagon, posting rabbits illegally by regular mail to online customers. Most of the hares are dead on arrival, having suffocated or frozen to death in their cardboard confines, but that hasn't slowed a proliferation of orders. According to Shanghaiist, these companies demand that the rabbit corpses be returned to them if consumers want a refund.
PETA and other animal rights groups have issued statements imploring Chinese residents not to buy into the egregious trend. “There's no better time to help rabbits than during the Year of the Rabbit, and you can do so by refusing to support the pet trade that causes so many animals to suffer,” Maggie Chen, a Beijing-based PETA campaigner, told the AFP.
(Read "Energizer Bunnies: Turning Rabbits into Green Fuel.")
The rabbits are being disposed of in dumpsters and mailboxes by ill-equipped New Year's celebrators who fail to realize how fragile and high-maintenance a bunny can be. “Rabbits aren't just cute and fluffy,” Chen says, noting that the animals, like any other pets, require a significant amount of attention and veterinary care.
The hares are seen as bringers of luck, but a dead bunny doesn't seem like a particularly good omen for the future. (via Shanghiist)
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/china%e2%80%99s-year-of-the-rabbit-not-so-great-for-rabbits/#ixzz1C9KvECtM
China Plans A New Mega City: Population, 42 Million
By: Hillary Brenhouse Rabbits being displayed for sale at a sidewalk market in Bogor city, West Java, ahead of the Year of the Rabbit festivities which begin on February 3 / ROMEO GACAD / AFP / Getty Images
2011 is, by the Chinese zodiac cycle, the Year of the Rabbit, which is far worse news for baby bunnies than you might imagine.
As China hippity-hops into the Lunar New Year, street vendors, pet shops and flower stalls across the mainland (and in other parts of Asia) are selling infant rabbits en masse. To meet a surging demand for the little furballs, the prices of which have been significantly raised, vendors often wrench them from their mothers much too early.
Rarely do the bunnies, once purchased, survive the trip home. Those that do make it are usually abandoned by owners who very quickly tire of their new pets.
(See TIME's top 10 animal stories of 2010.)
Web retailers have also jumped on the bunny bandwagon, posting rabbits illegally by regular mail to online customers. Most of the hares are dead on arrival, having suffocated or frozen to death in their cardboard confines, but that hasn't slowed a proliferation of orders. According to Shanghaiist, these companies demand that the rabbit corpses be returned to them if consumers want a refund.
PETA and other animal rights groups have issued statements imploring Chinese residents not to buy into the egregious trend. “There's no better time to help rabbits than during the Year of the Rabbit, and you can do so by refusing to support the pet trade that causes so many animals to suffer,” Maggie Chen, a Beijing-based PETA campaigner, told the AFP.
(Read "Energizer Bunnies: Turning Rabbits into Green Fuel.")
The rabbits are being disposed of in dumpsters and mailboxes by ill-equipped New Year's celebrators who fail to realize how fragile and high-maintenance a bunny can be. “Rabbits aren't just cute and fluffy,” Chen says, noting that the animals, like any other pets, require a significant amount of attention and veterinary care.
The hares are seen as bringers of luck, but a dead bunny doesn't seem like a particularly good omen for the future. (via Shanghiist)
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/china%e2%80%99s-year-of-the-rabbit-not-so-great-for-rabbits/#ixzz1C9KvECtM
China Plans A New Mega City: Population, 42 Million Rabbits being displayed for sale at a sidewalk market in Bogor city, West Java, ahead of the Year of the Rabbit festivities which begin on February 3 / ROMEO GACAD / AFP / Getty Images
2011 is, by the Chinese zodiac cycle, the Year of the Rabbit, which is far worse news for baby bunnies than you might imagine.
As China hippity-hops into the Lunar New Year, street vendors, pet shops and flower stalls across the mainland (and in other parts of Asia) are selling infant rabbits en masse. To meet a surging demand for the little furballs, the prices of which have been significantly raised, vendors often wrench them from their mothers much too early.
Rarely do the bunnies, once purchased, survive the trip home. Those that do make it are usually abandoned by owners who very quickly tire of their new pets.
(See TIME's top 10 animal stories of 2010.)
Web retailers have also jumped on the bunny bandwagon, posting rabbits illegally by regular mail to online customers. Most of the hares are dead on arrival, having suffocated or frozen to death in their cardboard confines, but that hasn't slowed a proliferation of orders. According to Shanghaiist, these companies demand that the rabbit corpses be returned to them if consumers want a refund.
PETA and other animal rights groups have issued statements imploring Chinese residents not to buy into the egregious trend. “There's no better time to help rabbits than during the Year of the Rabbit, and you can do so by refusing to support the pet trade that causes so many animals to suffer,” Maggie Chen, a Beijing-based PETA campaigner, told the AFP.
(Read "Energizer Bunnies: Turning Rabbits into Green Fuel.")
The rabbits are being disposed of in dumpsters and mailboxes by ill-equipped New Year's celebrators who fail to realize how fragile and high-maintenance a bunny can be. “Rabbits aren't just cute and fluffy,” Chen says, noting that the animals, like any other pets, require a significant amount of attention and veterinary care.
The hares are seen as bringers of luck, but a dead bunny doesn't seem like a particularly good omen for the future. (via Shanghiist)
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/china%e2%80%99s-year-of-the-rabbit-not-so-great-for-rabbits/#ixzz1C9KvECtM
REUTERS/Bobby Yip
An aerial view shows high-rise residential buildings in China's southern city of Shenzhen, which neighbours Hong Kong in this May 24, 2006 file photo.
Some ambitious apparatchiks in southern China want to combine 9 cities to create an urban area the size of New Jersey and Vermont combined.
The plan, announced in state media, would unite several existing cities in the prosperous Pearl River Delta region, including Guangzhou (12 million), Shenzhen (8.6 million), Dongguan (6.9 million) and six smaller cities. Together, these cities already account for about 10% of China's economy, the Telegraph notes.
(Read about the 30th anniversary of the foundation of Shenzhen)
The Party's planners hope improved transport links and better infrastructure be beneficial to the population and to greater economic efficiencies . Other areas in China are facing a similar gravitational pull to merge together, notably Beijing with its southern smaller twin Tianjin, already joined by a high speed train link.
Rich neighbors Hong Kong and Macau will not join the super sprawl, but it's safe to assume that they'd like to have a say in larger regional themes, like pollution control.
The godzilla-like territory has yet to be named.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/china-plans-a-new-mega-city-population-42-million/#ixzz1C9KeAUb4
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