View full sizePortland Meat Collective Camas Davis, right, demonstrates a cut at a butchery class for women. Davis started the collective to open a dialogue about meat-eating.An instructor and farmer for a Portland-based organization that creates classes and discussions on meat preparation, slaughtering and animal-rearing said
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Levi Cole, an instructor and farmer for
, said the rabbits were stolen from a property he owns Saturday, the night before he instructed a class on the raising, slaughtering and food preparation of rabbits.
Cole said he believes it was a politically charged burglary, and whoever stole the rabbits left behind nine nursing baby rabbits. The nine babies died Sunday when Cole was unable to find anyone to foster them.
Portland Meat Collective owner Camas Davis said it's the first time anything like this has happened to the collective, its instructors and organizers.
"We get an occasional comment on the website, some people who are angry at our existence," Davis said, adding that such an incident "hurts the livelihood of the people who are raising the animals."
Davis said she started the Portland Meat Collective in order to create a dialogue about eating meat.
"Something like that is not about a dialogue at all; it's the opposite," she said. "I don't want involvement with the Portland Meat Collective to mean your animals are in danger of being stolen."
Meanwhile, Cole reported the incident to police, and officials told him they are investigating.
And despite the burglary, Cole said the rabbit dinner class was still held, because the rabbits being used for it were at a different location at the time of the burglary. But he said the incident still overshadowed the dinner.
"It's all we're talking about," Cole said about the dinner conversation at the event.
Anyone with information or leads regarding the stolen rabbits is asked to contact the Portland Meat Collective
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