New Undercover Investigation Reveals Cruelty Inside Rabbit Farms Linked to the UK

Today, Animal Equality has been featured in The Sunday Times where it reveals the shocking findings of its latest investigation. Two of the farms investigated are linked to an English distributor and restaurants such as the Terrace at the National Theatre in London. For over a period of 2 years, Animal Equality investigators infiltrated the Spanish rabbit meat industry. A total of 72 farms and 4 slaughterhouses have been investigated.

Findings of this investigation:

• Animals killed by blunt force trauma. Furthermore, our investigators have been able to report that this is a common practice within rabbit industry.
• Workers throwing live rabbits into the waste containers, due to over-production.
• Animals with open wounds or infections were left in the cages and had no veterinary treatment.
• Cannibalism amongst certain animals provoked by over-crowded conditions.
• Farms selling rabbits to restaurants without them first meeting health and safety requirements.
• A vet smashing a rabbit against the ground whilst acknowledging, to the camera, that this constitutes animal abuse.
• Farms which had never received health and bio-security inspections
• Dead animals left to rot in cages next to live animals.

Animal Equality has already taken legal action against the farms and slaughterhouses investigated. Administrative sanctions on those responsible may vary from 60,001 to 1,200,000 euros in the case of very serious offenses and fines from 600 to 3,000 euros for minor offenses.