A British developer is petitioning to build six “very green and very sustainable” rabbit farms in the United Kingdom. Nearly all of the 3,000 tons of rabbit meat consumed by Brits last year was imported from foreign countries, the developer told a reporter for The Guardian.
But the farms, proposed in a nation where rabbit farming is no longer extant, are drawing criticism from animal rights activists who say the caged rabbits would be susceptible to sickness and even cannibalism. These opponents say the proposed farms would trap the rodents in cages too small to allow for hopping or exercise.
“It’s time for us to be banning these cruel systems, not to be introducing them,” Michele Danan of Compassion in World Farming told The Guardian. ”I don’t think that the public will be in favor when they learn that this friendly and inquisitive animal, regarded by many as…furry pets, is going to be deprived of their basic rights — to be free from pain or mental suffering.”
Under the proposal, each farm would house up to 1,100 rabbits in windowless barns, The Guardian reports. The rabbits would be slaughtered for their meat at 12 weeks of age.
The developer, Philip Kerry of T&S Nurseries, told The Guardian the rabbits would feed on barley grass grown in on-site hydroponic ponds.
“The environment will be light and airy, with lots of space in there, and the cages are 18% bigger than required [by law],” he told the newspaper. “And we hope to retire the does after four to five years and give them away as pets, if there is the demand.”
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