Way late to this thread, but yes they are pets, friends, mentors at times and oh so bright, interactive, whiley and funny and loving -- such that I cannot consider them a food or fabric source for any conscionable human with alternatives. It's something about the animal's apparent sentience which factors into my deliberations of considering eating salmon as different than eating dolphin and having come to know the species quite well, I cannot not see rabbits as anything other than companion.