European rabbit farmers urged to phase out battery cages and replace them with alternatives

Rabbit farmers across Europe are being urged to to phase out battery cages and replace them with 'healthier but affordable alternatives' (Photo: AP Images)
Rabbit farmers across Europe are being urged to to phase out battery cages and replace them with 'healthier but affordable alternatives' (Photo: AP Images)

Rabbit farmers across Europe are being urged to to phase out battery cages and replace them with 'healthier but affordable alternatives'.

Alternatives such as park or pen farming systems have been emphasised, says the Agriculture Committee in a resolution voted on Wednesday (25 January).

MEPs argue that improving rabbits’ welfare and living conditions would help prevent disease, thus reducing the need for intensive use of antibiotics that might end up in the human food chain.

“The mere fact that after so many years we are finally talking about minimum standards for the protection of rabbits is a success,” said rapporteur Stefan Eck.

“Today we made progress in the right direction, but ideally we need binding EU rules. The fight for rabbit-specific EU legislation will continue.”

To ensure that rabbit farms are better managed and monitored, MEPs encourage all EU states to gradually phase out the use of battery cages and replace them with alternatives that would allow for better disease-prevention and targeted checks.

This could also help to cut the widespread use of antibiotics in intensive farming and thus benefit end consumers too, they say.

Finding a sustainable farming system

The EU Commission wants to encourage research into the best housing systems to improve the welfare of different types of rabbits, say MEPs.

They nonetheless stress the need to strike a balance between animal welfare, the financial situation of farmers and the affordability of rabbit meat for consumers, adding that the sustainability of rabbit farms must be ensured.

The EU Commission should propose guidelines and EU-wide recommendations on farmed rabbits’ health, welfare and housing, MEPs say.

They also call on the Commission and member states to ensure that rabbit meat imported from outside the EU meets the same food safety and animal welfare criteria as that produced in the EU.

'Small scale' in the UK

340 million rabbits are slaughtered for meat in the EU every year, this represents less than 1% of the EU’s final livestock production.

Output is falling steadily - by 3.9% in 2016 according to forecasts – because consumer demand is falling.

The EU is the world’s leading rabbit producer, ahead of China, which is its leading rabbit meat exporter. Around 99% of the EU’s rabbit meat imports originate in China.

It is difficult to get any accurate, up to date figures on the number of rabbits farmed for meat in the UK. It is believed that rabbit farming industry in the UK is fairly small-scale.