Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail… Or is it, here comes lunch, yum, rabbit meat? That’s at the center of a controversy between people who think rabbits should remain our furry friends and not our food, and the move by Whole Foods to start selling rabbit meat at selected stores.

Friends of pet bunnies say they’ll be showing their disapproval with the situation at Whole Foods stores this weekend, reports the Huffington Post, handing out leaflets that highlight the “popular furry companion” side of rabbits as pets.

A nonprofit group called The House Rabbit Society wants participants around the country to be nice when telling shoppers about how awesome and fun it is to have a pet rabbit, and to ask people to fill out comment cards about the rabbit meat or speak to store managers.

You can buy rabbit meat in Whole Foods Stores in certain locations in Northern California, the mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, north Atlantic, Northeast, South and Pacific Northwest right now.

Whole Foods said in a statement to HuffPo that the company is “sensitive to the companion animal issue,” and that the only reason rabbit meat is for sale is because customers asked for it.

“A number of shoppers have been asking Whole Foods Market to carry rabbit for years but conventional raising practices do not meet our rigorous animal welfare standards,” he said. “To meet our customers’ requests for rabbit we needed our own set of animal welfare standards. These animal welfare standards are a direct result of a rigorous four-year process to address the welfare issues in rabbit production.”

Whole Foods’ Plan To Sell Rabbit Meat Incites Fury [Huffington Post]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.