I think this is related to why Japanese uses the same counter words for rabbits and birds. You can’t just say a number plus object in Japanese alone, because you need a counter word with it. So 2 bottles is “bottles 2 long things” and 4 pieces of paper is “paper 4 flat things”. Small animals are usually counted with the word “hiki”, so you’d say “salmon 5 hiki” or “dogs 2 hiki”, but birds use “wa” instead. I think rabbits are also wa so people could basically say “Uh, no we’re not eating meat, we’re just having some long eared furry birds.”