Too Damned Sick!

I thought that I had heard enough to be immune to the shock of money-making schemes online, but I was wrong. Let me back up a moment here. My Critical Thinking students have to compile a Fallacy Notebook for next Friday. To do this, they check out arguments (letters to the editor, blogs, ads, etc.) in any form(s) of media they wish, selecting ten that stand as examples of different logical fallacies (they may only use any given fallacy only once and associate only one fallacy with each source). One student brought in something disturbed us.

Apparently, one man (oh, how degrading to the gender this is!) rescued a rabbit a few months back and nursed him back to health. An enterprising fellow, he decided that he could use the rabbit, now named Toby, to make a little cash, so he start SaveToby.com.

Now, Toby is not sick, not old, not mauled by a cat. In fact, Toby is in good health by his owner's accounting. Still, unless his owner receives $50,000 in donations by the end of June, Toby becomes a mid-summer main course (recipes are available on the site). Tell me, am I wrong for being disturbed by this? "Give me money or I will kill my pet rabbit, which I rescued and nursed back to health." Nice one. Think he's just showing off his marketing skills? Maybe, but he has already gotten, as of this writing, over $15,000 in donations (that's almost $2,000 between 2/8 and 2/20, folks).

Does this fall into the realm of private rights, or can the SPCA do something here. The law, wherever this twit may live, may regard Toby as property to be cared for and raised of butchered (he has promised to use a real butcher) and eaten. I'm no animal rights activist, but come on! There are limits to decency, and this is a few steps over the line. I'd like to hear your ideas, and maybe we can start a "Free Toby" campaign (I do not want your money, I want your ideas and your suppport).