A Hot Pot Restaurant Is In Hot Waters After Serving Rabbit Meat As A New Delicacy

According to a report in Mothership.sg yesterday, 6 December, the hotpot restaurant, Tong Xin Ru Yi Traditional Hotpot, introduced two rabbit meat dishes as a new delicacy in end-November.

The two dishes are Diced Rabbit doused in Chilli Oil and Rabbit hot pot, reported Lianhe Wanbao.

In the since-deleted post, Tong Xin Ru Yi Traditional Hotpothad written, "We are happy to announce that we are the first and only one to release rabbit hot pot in Singapore".

Lianhe Wanbao reported that while some of the people on the restaurant's Facebook page said that they were keen to try out the dish, it also caused a heated discussion among others.

The Change.org petition "Say "No" To Rabbit Hotpot" has since been signed by more than 5,100 people.

The petition, which was started by Bunny Wonderland and House Rabbit Society Singapore, urges people to request for Tong Xin Ru Yi Traditional Hotpot to remove the two items from their menu.

"Both organisations have been tirelessly rescuing abandoned rabbits in Singapore and working with rabbit lovers to improve their welfare," the petition stated.

"For this restaurant to encourage the consumption of our pets, it's totally against all that we have worked hard to achieve. If this dish is allowed, does that means there will be cat stews and dog barbeque soon?"

The owner had reportedly imported 600kg of frozen rabbit meat in November after the restaurant received many orders from Sichuan natives in Singapore, reported Lianhe Wanbao.

According to an estimation by the owner, while an average of 20kg of frozen rabbit meat was sold every day since the introduction of the dishes, only 20% of those who tried the rabbit dishes were Singaporean.

Mothership.sg said that the owner had applied for a license that allows the restaurant to import rabbit meat as it is part of the list of meat products allowed to be imported into Singapore.