RICKY HITS OUT AT RABBIT FUR FARMING PLANS
Comic slams ranches that breed 30,000 bunnies
COMEDY star Ricky Gervais has slammed plans to create intensive rabbit farms that could see 30,000 bunnies slaughtered every year.
He is among tens of thousands to sign petitions opposing three “ranches” each capable of breeding 10,000 animals a year.
Meat and fur producer T&S Rabbits already operates four sites in the UK, selling meat and live rabbits to wholesalers.
Fur farming has been banned here since 2003. But a loophole allows T&S to flog rabbit fur accessories such as £200 scarves, £275 bags, £130 hats, £85 cushions and whole pelts at £28.
They can be sold as they are a by-product of the meat trade.
Animal lover Ricky, star of The Office and After Life said: “Britain doesn’t need rabbit meat and fur farms, we don’t need to find new ways to exploit animals for our stomachs or our wardrobes.
MACHINES
“If these plans go ahead it will mean thousands of baby rabbits bred and taken from hundreds of mother rabbits who are treated like breeding machines.”
T&S, based in Grantham, Lincs, sparked controversy a decade ago when it announced plans for a rabbit battery farm, with animals in mesh cages.
The system is common in the EU, where rabbits are kept in dire conditions on vast farms producing a million tons of rabbit and hare meat a year.
T&S backtracked in the face of a public outcry and instead built “free range” ranches with hutches and outdoor grazing at sites in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Cambridgeshire.
It has now lodged applications with Cornwall, Rutland and Bucks councils for “temporary workers’ dwellings”.
They would house staff on proposed rabbit farms, with 250 does bred at each site.
Ricky, 59, is horrified, adding: “Britain banned fur farming two decades ago because it’s cruel, so allowing these would bring back fur farming by the back door.
“That’s outrageous and I hope the councils listen.”
He is backing the Humane Society International’s #FurFreeBritain campaign calling for a total ban on a fur trade here.
Charities also condemned the plans. Four Paws called it “worrying”,
This could bring fur farming in via the back door.. it’s outrageous RICKY GERVAIS ON FIGHT TO HALT THE FUR TRADE
the RSPCA and Animal Aid called for the loophole to be closed and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urged consumers to “refuse to buy into the slaughter”.
T&S owner Phil Kerry expects to sell 700 pelts and accessories a year at each new facility, plus 2,000 “oven ready” meat packs.
Some 2,800 rabbits would go live to wholesalers and 700 would sell as pets or to breeders and home farmers. Mr Kerry said: “Welfare of animals is a priority. Fur is secondary to meat production – we don’t slaughter animals for pelts, that would be illegal.
“We used to throw pelts away but it doesn’t make financial sense as they have a value and it shows honour to the animal to use every part. I know there’s opposition but, in my view, it’s hollow and doesn’t really mean much.”