I think it is barbaric.
The chap I take the rabbits in from has a totally 'throw away' attitude.
He breeds rabbits for showing and is heavily involved in it. He even breeds rabbits and when the babies are born selects the babies he wants and kills the rest.
He doesn't ever, and will never, take any of his rabbits to the vets when they are ill. He says vets are too expensive and are a waste of time so the rabbits are either left to suffer or receive a chop to the neck.
The rabbits have no quality of life at all. They are just show pieces or baby machines. They are shut in tiny hutches, piled high inside a breeders shed. There is hardly any light in the shed and some parts of the shed are pitch black, you wouldn't know that a bunny was there. They have no bedding, no exercise and no affection.
Meg, the bunny Jane has recently taken in from me, was living in a corner of the shed where there was no light. She was in the bottom row of a line of tiny hutches. You had to bend down to the floor and peer inside the hutch and you could just make out the shadow of a bunny. The dear little girl was extremely overweight when I took her in, had very sore feet and was very scared.
I hate to think of all the bunnies that must have met their fate by now, bunnies I was unable to take as I can only take so many. The person in question kills rabbits of all ages, some babies, some only a few months old, others a couple of years old.
He says he has limited space in his shed so they have to be got rid of to make way for new youngsters.
Most of the breeders I am aware of use the term 'culling' when they mean killing unwanted rabbits. The reason why they cull is because 1-they can't be bothered to rehome the rabbits, 2- They do not want to rehome their unwanted stock as many of them are in a poor state, which in turn is going to give themselves a bad name, especially in breeding circles. 3-It is easier to clear room in the shed by simply 'culling' a few-that gives immediate space with no hassle involved.
Many of the breeders I am aware of have a 'throw away' attitude to their rabbits. All they're interested in is whether their buns have the correct banding, whether their ears sit in the correct manner and if they meet all the criteria given by the BRC. Many of them don't see them as pets like you and I. The chap I deal with tells me 'you have to be brutal in this game, if they're no good you just chop 'em'.
Sadly this goes on all over the country behind closed doors. If you were to visit a website geared up for breeders you would see they have a totally different attitude to rabbits than many of us do.
Nic and Harvey xxx