• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Rabbit Battery Farms - IMPORTANT, Please Read

I emailed Compassion In World Farming about this, they seem concerned and ready to help any oppositions to the farm, perhaps the RWAF could work with them on this?

The reply I got is below, I'm sure they wont mind me copy and pasting it, I've removed the names:

Dear Vanessa,

Thank you very much for your email and for taking the time to get in touch. We are always pleased to hear from supporters, and I hope that I can be of some help today with regards to outlining Compassion’s position to this planning application.

Compassion is against the following plans submitted by T&S Nurseries:
• A purpose built rabbit breeding unit within a barn, with the rabbits kept in cages: the size of the barn and UK welfare codes limit the enterprise to 200-250 does (females), plus additional bucks (males) and their young. Due to the size of the barn proposed by T&S Nurseries, the maximum number of rabbits at any one time in this rabbit farm is likely to be in the region of 900-1100.
• Angora rabbits will be bred for the production of high quality fibre – the rabbits will be groomed regularly and the fibres sent to a mill for conversion in to yarn. Grooming can cause great stress to the rabbits.

There are very serious welfare issues affecting rabbits in intensive farming systems. Currently there is no species-specific legislation protecting the welfare of farmed rabbits in the EU and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 contain only very basic species-specific requirements for rabbits.

Most commercially farmed rabbits are kept in barren wire cages in closed buildings where their natural behaviour is severely restricted. Systems which keep rabbits in cages or hutches without permanent access to additional runs are unacceptable on welfare grounds.

Compassion in World Farming supports systems that give rabbits access to pasture throughout the year, or whenever conditions allow.

The recommended floor space for a cage-housed breeding doe (alone or with a litter up to five weeks of age), as set out in the UK welfare code, is 5600cm2. This is much smaller than the area necessary to allow a rabbit to move around normally by hopping, let alone achieve any meaningful exercise. When the doe has a young litter, at least 800cm2 of this area will be taken up with a nest box, leaving only around 4800cm2 of floor area outside of the nest box, which is insufficient even for the doe to lie in a species-typical resting posture. The lack of opportunity for exercise in caged rabbits can lead to weakened bones.

For the young rabbits who are reared for meat, the recommended floor space per animal in cages, as set out in the UK welfare code, is 700cm2 up to 12 weeks of age and 1800cm2 from 12 weeks of age; this is equivalent to around 14 and six animals per square metre respectively. The total area available to growing rabbits will depend on the group size. Opportunities to express natural behaviour are particularly severely restricted where growing rabbits are housed in small groups. The functional space available to growing rabbits housed in small groups in cages is insufficient to allow many normal activities, such as sequences of hops, running and play behaviour.

The minimum cage height recommended in the UK welfare code is 45cm for all rabbits over 12 weeks of age. This is insufficient to allow rabbits to adopt some normal postures, such as sitting up on the hind legs in a species-typical “lookout” posture, or to make some normal movements, such as jumping.

Whenever housed, rabbits should have access to a rich environment which includes bedding material such as straw, opportunities for burrowing, or pipes they can hide in, and raised platforms. They should have sufficient space to run about and sufficient height to raise themselves to their full height and to jump.

Cages are mainly constructed of wire and sometimes the sides are solid metal sheets. Some farms use floor mats to cover part of the cage floor but usually the floor is made entirely of bare wire. Breeding females and males that are kept for long periods on wire mesh floors commonly develop sores on their footpads and hocks; these sores can cause chronic pain.

The space and environment in which these rabbits are kept can be likened to that experienced by egg-laying hens in barren battery cages – a ban of which is due to come into force across the EU in 2012.

High-fibre forage such as grass or hay should be available at all times. The barren environment and lack of forage feed (e.g. hay) can lead to rabbits developing abnormal stereotypical behaviours such as excessive grooming and repetitive gnawing or nibbling at the cage. In the worst cases, cannibalism may develop, causing terrible injuries.

Like other animals farmed for meat, rabbits have been selectively bred to grow rapidly and produce more meat than their wild counterparts. This can cause health and welfare issues in the rabbits.

Animals are sentient beings, which means they can feel emotions about things that matter to them. There is now evidence that many animals can learn new skills and some appear to show emotions similar to human empathy. They can also be reduced to a state resembling human depression by chronic stress or confinement.

Compassion believes that rabbits farmed for their meat or fur should be kept in humane farming systems that allow them to live a life free from pain and mental distress. It’s time for us to be banning these cruel systems, not to be introducing them. We will be sure to keep our supporters up to date with any action they can take with regards to objecting to this application, so thank you so much for your interest and support.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback please don't hesitate to contact myself, (removed names) in Supporter Services and we will be happy to help in any way we can. You can call us on 01483 521 953 (lines are manned 9am - 5pm Monday - Friday) or email supporters@ciwf.org. Remember you can keep up to date with our work on our website at http://www.ciwf.org.




Kind regards

(removed name)
 
Last edited:
can you make a stand against this if you are not a nottingham local? i am against the idea of battery farming any animal though a meat eater i like my animals who do get consumed to have an oudoors and natrual as possible life first. I personally do not eat rabbit meat as i have tehm as pets but am not against people eating rabbit if the rabbit has been well cared for first.(as with other animals). this is probebly not the same attitude to most people on here, however i try to buy free range and outdoor reared where ever possible and think that battery farming is creul and unnessacery. how can i make a stand against the welfare aspect of this rabbit battery farm?
 
I've posted on the BUAV - against cosmetic animal testing and the uncaged hurtful essences facebook pages - so if I can drum up support around the rest of the world.
 
This is on the CIWF page aswell and they are appealling for signatures on the petition that it links to aswell.

This is the article which provides some more background http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...r-as-battery-rabbit-farms-return-2276847.html

April 2011
Compassion in World Farming Factsheets
Intensive rearing of rabbits

Most commercially farmed rabbits are kept in barren wire cages in closed buildings where their natural behaviour is severely restricted. The majority of rabbit meat produced in the EU is from large intensive farms which may house 500 to 1000 breeding females (does)and 10 000 to 20 000 rabbits in total. Welfare Issues
There are very serious welfare issues affecting rabbits in intensive farming systems. Currently there is no species-specific legislation protecting the welfare of farmed rabbits in the EU and Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 contain only very basic species-specific requirements for rabbits.
Inadequate space and height
Rabbits usually move by hopping, with each hop covering around 70 cm of ground, but during grazing they move more slowly. They can run at speeds of up to 30 km/hour, jump higher than a metre and make sudden changes of direction by zig-zagging. Rabbits have highly sensitive senses of smell and hearing. They are very alert animals and regularly interrupt activities to check for danger by sitting or rearing up on their hind legs with ears
erect. For the young rabbits who are reared for meat (growers) the space available per animal in grower cages in the EU is typically 450 to 600 cm2; this is less than the area of an ordinary A4 sheet of typing paper. A typical cage for an adult doe in the EU is 60 to 65 cm long, 40 to 48 cm wide and 30 to 35 cm high. The floor space and height are so restricted that caged rabbits are often unable to move normally and adopt normal postures such as
lying stretched out, sitting and standing with their ears erect, rearing up, turning around comfortably and hopping. The lack of opportunity for exercise in caged rabbits can lead to weakened bones.
As set out in the UK welfare code: The recommended floor space for a cage-housed breeding doe (alone or with a litter up to five weeks of age) is 5600cm2. This is much smaller than the area necessary to allow a rabbit to move around normally by hopping, let alone achieve any meaningful exercise. When the doe has a young litter, at least 800cm2 of this area will be taken up with a nest box, leaving only around 4800cm2 of floor area outside of the nest box, which is insufficient even for the doe to lie in a species-typical
resting posture. The lack of opportunity for exercise in caged rabbits can lead to weakened bones. For the young rabbits who are reared for meat, the recommended floor space per animal in cages, as set out in the UK welfare code, is 700cm2 up to 12 weeks of age and 1800cm2 from 12 weeks of age; this is equivalent to around 14 and six animals per square metre respectively. The total area available to growing rabbits will depend on the group size. Opportunities to express natural behaviour are particularly severely restricted where growing rabbits are housed in small groups. The functional space available to growing rabbits housed in small groups in cages is insufficient to allow many normal activities, such as sequences of hops, running and play behaviour.
The minimum cage height recommended in the UK welfare code is 45cm for all rabbits over 12 weeks of age. This is insufficient to allow rabbits to adopt some normal postures, such as sitting up on the hind legs in a species-typical “lookout” posture, or to make some normal movements, such as jumping.
Barren environment
In a natural environment, rabbits dig a large and complex system of burrows which they use for resting, hiding and rearing their young. They will usually feed at dusk and dawn and at various points during the night.
Commercially farmed rabbits are generally fed on pellets and, except for a feeder and drinker, no other structural objects are usually provided in the cage. The barren environment and lack of forage feed (e.g. hay) can lead to rabbits developing abnormal stereotypical behaviours such as excessive grooming and repetitive gnawing or nibbling at the cage. Females that are being reared for breeding or are not nursing are often particularly badly affected as they are typically fed on a restricted diet.
Lack of social interaction- Rabbits are social animals, living in stable groups typically of between two and nine adult females, one to three adult males and their offspring. Serious aggression is rare once a stable hierarchy has been established and strong relationships develop between individuals, who will choose to remain close to each other and rest together, often in body contact. Mutual grooming is an important behaviour to reinforce social bonds.
Growers are often housed in pairs or groups, but breeding does and bucks are usually kept in individual cages, denying them the opportunity for social interaction. Individually caged rabbits show more abnormal stereotypical behaviour than rabbits housed in groups. Research has demonstrated that breeding rabbits can be housed successfully in groups if they are given sufficient space and adequate nesting facilities to avoid problems with aggression.
Injuries and poor physical condition
Cages are mainly constructed of wire and sometimes the sides are solid metal sheets. Some farms use floor mats to cover part of the cage floor but usually the floor is made entirely of bare wire. Breeding females and males kept for long periods on wire mesh floors commonly develop sores on their footpads and hocks; these sores cause chronic poor welfare and can be so severe that they are a common reason for culling. A survey of French rabbit farms found that on average 12% of female rabbits had paw injuries that
were sufficiently serious for them to show obvious signs of discomfort; on some farms this level was as high as 40%. It has been shown in one study that by application of of a plastic platform or slatted footrest ulcerative lesions on the hock can be prevented and can help cure those affected. The study did not find this was of any detriment to hygiene.
Breeding does must cope with an intensive reproductive cycle, which can lead to a loss of body condition and metabolic disease. Hormone treatment is often used to synchronise the time of breeding and, on most commercial farms, does are artificially inseminated within 11 days after giving birth. Breeding males have been selectively bred for increased growth rate, which can lead to chronic lameness.
Disease and mortality
Respiratory and enteric diseases can cause acute pain, whilst chronic conditions such as ulcerated feet and hocks, mastitis, mange, ringworm and abscesses can cause prolonged suffering in farmed rabbits.
Mortality of commercially farmed rabbits is very high, with typically 100% of breeding does dying or being culled and replaced each year and losses of 15 to 30% of growers from birth to slaughter. The main causes of mortality are enteric and respiratory diseases and the main reason for culling is reproductive failure due to infertility or mastitis.
Slaughter
Within the EU, most commercially slaughtered rabbits are electrically stunned before slaughter. There has been little research to determine the current and frequency necessary to achieve an effective stun in rabbits. There is therefore a high risk that rabbits may not be stunned properly. Rabbits are held individually for electrical stunning, which is not only stressful but may cause pain and/or injury, especially in larger rabbits, if their weight is not properly supported.
Within the EU, large numbers of smaller abattoirs have mostly been replaced with a small number of specialised rabbit slaughterhouses. The development of high speed and more automated slaughter lines is likely to lead to a greater risk of poor welfare during stunning and slaughter.

Con'td
 
Higher welfare alternatives
There are alternatives to the intensive farming of rabbits in cages, which can provide higher standards of welfare. Outdoor rearing systems have been shown to improve animal welfare by allowing greater space, giving better sanitary conditions and increased stimuli. The actual carcass produced is improved too. A study showed that the meat has a reduced cooking time and the hind limb had an increase in monounsaturated fatty acids and a reduction in saturated fatty acids, possibly caused by the increased activity of the
animal from the outdoor system. Enrichment with a gnawing stick within pens has been shown to reduce ear lesions caused by aggressive behaviour and is likely to improve weight gain in the se ond period of fattening.
In organic production systems, rabbits are kept in larger pens with access to an outdoor run which provides the animals with more space and freedom of movement and opportunities for social interaction and play. The environment is enriched with litter, such as straw, and wooded sticks or blocks for the animals to gnaw are also often provided.
These can help to occupy the rabbits and reduce abnormal stereotypical behaviour.
Platforms, partitions or covered areas enable the rabbits to retreat and hide. Organic rabbit standards require that the animals are provided with forage such as hay or grass and the rabbits are kept in groups, except that in some cases the does may be housed separately when they are nursing a litter. The breeding cycle is less intensive in organic production, placing less strain on the doe.

Recommendations
You can help to improve the welfare of farmed rabbits in a number of ways:
 Join Compassion in World Farming’s campaigns or donate to our work at
www.ciwf.org
April 2011the petition to stop this is on the site if you follow the links
 Avoid buying meat from intensively farmed rabbits as the animals are likely to have suffered during their lives;
 If you buy farmed rabbit meat, make sure it is from an organic or other higher welfare system;
 If your local supermarket stocks farmed rabbit, write to them to ask about the conditions the animals are reared in and ask them not to stock meat from rabbits farmed in cages;
 If you see rabbit on the menu in restaurants, ask about how the animals were reared and ask them to use meat from rabbits kept in higher welfare systems.

Sources are found on the CIWF page, I couldn't paste them here due to lack of space.

Apologies if this is a duplicate I've just noticed something similar on this thread, I am enraged by this and confused because in my view we are already intensively farming rabbits and this increase in demand will only increase the amount of farms.:evil:
 
Last edited:
http://www.nsdc.info/eplanning/default.aspx?sid=1&sindex=1&id=2&refno=11/00386/FUL

Application status now says withdrawn for the Fiskerton, North Nottm one!!! hopefully this is a good sign!!

I noticed that earlier Suzanne! I've tried making an objection myself, but I don't live in either Newark & Sherwood or Rushcliffe council areas, and can't even raise a complain on the Notts County Council website because it keeps telling me that I'm city council :roll:

I've forwarded the links to people I know living in those areas...so hopefully there have been lots of objections!
 
I noticed that earlier Suzanne! I've tried making an objection myself, but I don't live in either Newark & Sherwood or Rushcliffe council areas, and can't even raise a complain on the Notts County Council website because it keeps telling me that I'm city council :roll:

I've forwarded the links to people I know living in those areas...so hopefully there have been lots of objections!

I heard that you don't have to live in the area to make an objection the grounds of welfare.

This is the application for the East Bridgford one. if you read the documents they plan to have free range chickens in the orchard - how ironic!!

http://www.document1.co.uk/blueprint/Results2.asp?Acpt=115381844&CaseNo=10/02115/FUL&Dept=DC
 
Apparently ones already got a green light :(

Where? All rabbit farms we have atm are intensive so are you saying that they are going to be housing in even more inedequate conditions than the current cruel Defra ones or are they just opening another one that conforms to the Defra regs that have been going on for years?
 
I can't actually believe there are rabbit factory farms - that is horrendous! I don't think I can look at any pictures or read the article, as I don't think I could handle it. If there were factory farms for dogs and cats, there would be an uproar - why should rabbits be any different? Or any other animal!!!
 
I've just read that the plans for the battery rabbit farm have all been withdrawn and new plans for 'free range' rabbit farming have been resubmitted. Still with the same number of rabbits though. :(:(
 
Battery farms for rabbits?! Why on earth ... is rabbit meat really that popular?!! This isn't the middle ages - it's pathetic and cruel and I have signed and voiced my opinions.
 
Back
Top