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Giant bunny dies on United, and Twitter hops right to the jokes

If there were ever an airline that didn't need another public-relations disaster, every bunny knows which one it is.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper

Simon was no ordinary bunny. The 10-month-old continental rabbit was 3 feet long (90 cm), and he was heading for a golden life. His owner told the Associated Press that he'd been purchased by an unidentified celebrity (surely TMZ is working busily to reveal the person's name).

Simon was on his way to Chicago's O'Hare Airport from London Heathrow when he mysteriously died. While traveling, the rabbit was carried in the plane's cargo hold, but ABC is reporting that he did not die onboard, but in the airline's kennel.

The airline? Much-beleaguered United Airlines, of course, which recently came under social-media attack when horrifying video footage showed Dr. David Dao being dragged off a plane.

British tabloid The Sun reports that Simon was the son of Darius, the world's largest rabbit, and was expected to grow large enough one day to take the record from his dad.

Simon's death is still being investigated, United says, but if there's ever an airline that didn't need another public-relations black eye, it's this one. Twitter naturally had some thoughts.

This latest United debacle might have finally done what nothing else could -- it has some social-media users feeling a little sympathetic for the world's third-largest airline.

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