Crammed into cages, the rabbits that end up as pet food
PET owners could be feedi ng their cats and dogs food containing the meat of rabbits farmed in horrific conditions in factories across Europe.
Farms on the continent are cramming rabbits i nto tiny battery cages, an investigation has found.
Since 2012, it has been illegal for chickens to be kept in battery cages – but no such law applies to the 300million rabbits that are intensively farmed across the EU.
The UK imports the meat of around 300,000 rabbits – most of them cage-farmed – a year, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Much of the meat ends up in householdname pet food. Last year, the charity Compassion in World Farming investigated farms in five EU countries – Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic, Poland and Cyprus.
Going undercover, they found rabbits living their whole lives in metal cages, with their urine and faeces falling into huge piles in pits below them.
They suffered behavioural problems and would chew each other’s ears off. Fungal infections were widespread and several had ulcerated skin.
An investigator reported there was so much fur falling off that at some points it looked as though it had been snowing.
And their meat, it is claimed, is being used in pet food distributed in the UK. Four Paws animal wel- fare charity director Julie Sanders said: ‘We believe pet owners in the UK would be absolutely horrified if they knew that the food they were feeding their cats and dogs was linked to such horrific cruelty.’
She added: ‘Rabbit is not commonly eaten here, so people may simply not be aware of the scale of
‘It’s criminal to confine animals’
the rabbit meat industry or the poor conditions in which they are kept.’
Several supermarkets have since acted on concerns about cagefarmed rabbit on their shelves. Asda has stopped selling its ownbrand pet foods, while Waitrose is phasing its out. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and the Co-op are reportedly planning to do the same.
Purina – which makes Felix, Purina One, Bonio, Gourmet, GoCat and Winalot – has begun auditing its suppliers. Mars Petcare – which makes Whiskas, Sheba, Cesar and Pedigree – said it would ‘reassess the situation’.
And a spokesman from Pets at Home store chain said: ‘We have decided to stop buying pet food with flavours that include rabbit.’
Last night, the RSPCA called for the cages to be phased out, adding: ‘The footage represents everything that is bad about intensive rabbit farming.’
A spokesman for PETA said: ‘It’s criminal to confine animals to crowded, filthy cages, where misery is the only thing they experience – but big businesses get away with things an individual could not.’