Article: Battery Bunnies

Battery Bunnies

By Mark Hawthorne

Despite being one of the most popular companion animals in the country, rabbits are among the most exploited. Domestic rabbits – cherished for their playful, gentle natures – are skinned for their fur, blinded to test cosmetics, bred for show, drugged in the name of science, clipped for wool products, pulled out of magicians’ hats, killed in vivisection labs, sold as food for pet snakes, and raised and shipped by breeders motivated only by profit. To add insult to all this injury, we chop off their paws and tout the rabbit’s foot as a “good luck” charm.

But the exploitation doesn’t end there. A 2002 rabbit industry report by the USDA suggests that 2 million rabbits are raised and slaughtered each year in this country to be served in restaurants and sold in grocery stores. Recent media coverage asserts rabbit meat is a growing U.S. industry, especially in southern states. With members in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the Tri-State Rabbit Growers Association was formed in 2003, and its goal is to become an economic force in the food industry. “It’s alarming to see the growth of rabbit meat production in the South, where heavy development of chicken meat currently exists,” says Christine Morrissey, whose organization East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) investigates the rabbit-meat industry. “Like chicken, rabbit meat is gaining popularity as an alternative to red meat.”

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