More Rabbit Lunacy by the Left as Shakespeare is Attacked by Animal Rights Activists in "As You Like It"

We have been talking a lot about rabbits over the past month as the crazy animal rights activist appear to have rabbits on the brain. From small town families teaching their children responsibility to magicians and animal trainers, the USDA led by animal rights activists like Sarah Conant, rabbit stories are everywhere these days thanks the left.

Add William Shakespeare to the list of names like John Dollarhite who are being scrutinized for rabbits. The Shakespeare play "As You Like It" performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company is under fire for its depiction of killing and skinning a rabbit on stage as the performers portray hard country life.

Due to pressure by animal rights activists, the scene has been removed from the play. The Wall Street Journal Reports:

The decision to remove the dead rabbit from "As You Like It"—one of five RSC productions in repertory this summer at the Park Avenue Armory—was made after the festival received complaints from people who had read about the scene in a story in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, said festival spokeswoman Eileen McMahon. Referring to the use of the animals in the play, which is directed by RSC artistic director Michael Boyd, Ms. McMahon said: "There was a reaction. Michael didn't want that to distract from the larger production."


Over the weekend, the festival issued a statement on its Facebook page saying: "The RSC will not use rabbits during its performances of As You Like It in New York." The reversal was met with cheers from rabbit advocates, though some still chided the festival on Facebook. "A theater company of this caliber should know better," wrote "Flopsy Parker."


Initially, the rabbits were meant to arrive in New York already killed, sourced by a company that provides food for animals such as snakes, Ms. McMahon said. In England the theater sourced its dead rabbits from a farm. "We were anxious to make sure that we weren't responsible ourselves for decreasing the rapidly increasing rabbit population," Mr. Boyd said last week. Three rabbits were used for each performance in Britain: two were carried and one was skinned on stage.


Over the weekend, rabbit lovers began filling out an online petition, sounding off on message boards and calling the festival's offices to complain. "It's clearly absurd to skin a cat or dog on stage, so this is absurd to do it to a domestic rabbit," said Mary Cvetan, a 46-year-old marketing consultant from Pittsburgh. She added that after phoning the festival to complain, she received a return call Sunday informing her that the rabbit had been cut from the play. Ms. Cvetan, who runs the Pittsburgh House Rabbit Club, added that the episode struck a nerve for rabbit lovers who believe the animals already are treated as second-class citizens in the pet world. "For a lot of us, it raised that anger to a whole new level."