Easter Is No Holiday for "Meat" Rabbits

April 7, 2006

East Bay Animal Advocates
Often "fryer" rabbits spend their entire lives in crowded, unsanitary living conditions.

For millions of Americans, rabbits are a cherished part of our families. Living in homes as beloved companions and family members, they show us affection and provide us with joy. These intelligent, social, and playful animals form incredibly close bonds with other rabbits and their human families. Their personalities and preferences are as distinct as those of any cat or dog—they can be active or laid-back, affectionate or grumpy, rambunctious or quiet.

Rabbits even hold a place in the fabric of our culture. Each springtime, the Easter Bunny makes his highly anticipated visits to millions of American homes, and has become an ubiquitous icon treasured by children and adults alike.

Yet each year in the United States, up to 2 million rabbits are raised and slaughtered in ways that would shock any compassionate person. These rabbits live and die in ways that draw a shocking contrast to the compassionate regard with which Americans treat rabbits in their homes. A new investigation by East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) documents this treatment, revealing terrible conditions at one of California's rabbit slaughter plants, including intensive confinement in wire cages, unsanitary conditions, and denial of veterinary care for sick rabbits.

Inhumane, But Not Unusual

	East Bay Animal Advocates
	Rabbits can be piled in crates and trucked to slaughter for long distances without food or water.

The conditions spotlighted by the investigation are not unusual in the rabbit meat industry. Many of the industry’s approximately 200,000 U.S. producers keep animals in restrictive cages similar to conditions endured by most of the country's egg-laying hens. As many as six baby rabbits can be crowded into a wire enclosure that affords each animal the same amount of floor space as a sheet of legal-sized paper. Such intensive confinement can cause mobility problems, spine deformation, sores, and infections.

After birth, baby rabbits are often weaned early, causing stress and sometimes health disorders and illnesses such as pneumonia. Once separated from their mothers and moved into cages, the young rabbits—called "fryers"—languish for approximately 9 to 10 weeks, at which point producers typically load the rabbits into trucks and ship them long distances for processing at one of the few rabbit slaughterhouses in the country.

During slaughter, commercial processors may attempt to first stun rabbits by breaking their necks. However, it is difficult to stun "meat rabbits" effectively this way, because they are too large to handle easily. Rabbits are slaughtered using a number of other inhumane methods, including having their heads struck with a piece of iron pipe, having their necks cut before being hung up to be "bled out," and by decapitation. Many smaller breeders slaughter rabbits themselves and may even shoot them with pellet guns or break their necks by standing on a broom handle laid over rabbits' necks.

Little Protection from Abuse

Few protections exist for the millions of rabbits raised in confinement for meat each year. Only a small fraction of the approximately 200,000 U.S. rabbit producers are federally inspected, and USDA certification is currently on a voluntary basis.

Rabbits also lack protections from inhumane slaughter practices. In 1958, Congress passed the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) to address concerns about abusive slaughter practices. The HMSA requires that "cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock" be slaughtered in accordance with humane methods. However, the USDA does not interpret the HMSA to include rabbits. Commercial processors are left subject to state laws, many of which exclude common agricultural practices, no matter how abusive.

What You Can Do

Intensive confinement and inhumane slaughter cause tremendous suffering for millions of rabbits each year.

1. This Easter and every day, make a choice for compassion, and leave rabbit off your plates. 

2. If rabbit is served at restaurants you visit, ask the manager to consider to taking this inhumane choice off the menu. 

Related Links

The HSUS and Farm Animal Advocacy

Humane Eating and the Three Rs