Rabbit farmer’s anger at claims he is ill-treating his animals
THE owner of a Derbyshire rabbit farming businesses has rebutted claims by an animal welfare organisation that his animals are being kept in “shocking conditions”.
Phil Kerry, who owns T&S Nurseries, a network of farms that rear rabbits for meat and fur, insists the conditions pictured in photographs and footage by investigators from Animal Aid do not reflect the normal conditions his animals live in.
Animal Aid visited the firm’s site in Atlow and took photos and footage of rabbits in cramped cages with no access to grass.
This, the group says, is at odds with the farm’s claims of producing free-range rabbit meat and denied the rabbits the chance of displaying their natural behaviours, such as running, foraging, digging and playing.
Mr Kerry says the farm manager at the Atlow site, one of a handful of farms owned by T&S Nurseries in the UK, was in the process in moving the rabbits to new hutches, which provide space for them to run around.
But Tor Bailey, Animal Aid campaign manager said: “The very thought of confining female rabbits as breeding machines to have their young repeatedly taken from them is abhorrent.
“Our investigators were shocked and saddened when they witnessed these docile and intelligent animals confined in tiny cages. The conditions were truly shocking.”
Mr Kerry has told how he was contacted by the animal rights group and he explained to them that the rabbits were being moved, to comply with a planning condition.
He said: “At the time of their visit the vast majority of rabbits had gone, all of the large grass runs had been dismantled and moved.
“Only 20 of the bucks remained during filming and I did explain that the rabbits were about to be moved on to grass, but due to the wet conditions it had not been possible without the grass turning to mud, causing its own health problems for the livestock.”
Mr Kerry also criticised a video posted online by the animal rights group which he says is overdubbed with “horror” music to make it seem more dramatic to the viewer. He said: “The rabbits, despite the words such as ‘horrific scenes’ and ‘appalling conditions,’ were clearly healthy, meticulously clean and well fed.
“I have no criticism at all of my farm manager in this regard. One buck got featured four times in the video. The author of the report must be delusional and is clearly trying to incite hatred in connection with our law-abiding business.”
T&S Nurseries says its low-calorie rabbit meat is proving popular with restaurants and specialist food retailers and that its rabbits are reared on a free range basis and are principally fed a diet of grass, hay and herbs.
Animal Aid, which was founded in 1977 to campaign for an end to animal cruelty, says it will fight the planning applications.