MEPs vote to end battery farming of rabbits

EU COUNTRIES should step up animal welfare standards for rabbits by phasing out battery farming, MEPs have said.

They have called on the European Commission to introduce new legislation for rabbits, as there is currently none in place.

“We have to move away from keeping farm rabbits in cages,” said German MEP Stefan Eck, who penned Parliament’s report on the issue.

“We need minimum standards for protection of these animals such as we have for laying hens, pigs and cows.”

His report was adopted by 410 votes to 205 against (with 59 abstentions) but is not binding on the European Commission.

It calls on EU states to gradually phase out the use of battery cages and replace them with “higher-welfare alternatives” such as park farming.

They argue this would improve rabbits’ welfare and help prevent disease by cutting the use of antibiotics, which are widespread in battery farms. Extra rural development funds should be available to rabbit breeders to offset the higher costs of introducing the new rules, MEPs said, and to promote the consumption of rabbit meat. They also called on the Commission and member states to ensure that rabbit meat imported from outside the EU meets high European safety and animal welfare standards. Most rabbits farmed in the EU are reared in conventional cages, with 340 million slaughtered for meat in the EU every year, making it the world’s leading rabbit producer. However, rabbits represent less than 1pc of the EU’s total livestock production, and output fell 4.7pc in 2016, largely as a result of falling consumer demand. MEPs fear that China — currently the EU’s main export market for rabbit meat — could soon overtake the EU if measures are not put in place. The European Commission has no plans to introduce new animal welfare rules.