A rabbit, given the opportunity, could live up to twelve years, spending much of its time leaping and running and forming strong social bonds with its own kind. On farms, these animals instead grow up in tiny, filthy cages smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, unable to express their species-specific behaviours, and are slaughtered at just eighty days old. As if that were not enough, slaughter does not always take place in full compliance with the regulations — particularly those relating to stunning — as an investigation by Animal Equality, an international animal protection organisation, has revealed.

Inside a rabbit slaughterhouse

The organisation recently made public undercover footage filmed inside a rabbit slaughterhouse in Lombardy, revealing the horror concealed behind the rabbit meat we eat. After spending their entire lives in a cage, rabbits are transported to the slaughterhouse on a journey that often lasts up to 24 hours. The animals, as shown in the footage released by Animal Equality, await their end in terror, dozens of them crammed into plastic crates.

Rabbits slaughtered without stunning

If the (brief) lives of rabbits are marked by suffering and fear, death is no better for these gentle mammals. The animals are abruptly taken from the crates by an operator who stuns them one by one with an electric clamp pressed against the muzzle, after which they are hung on hooks and have their throats cut. The stunning, however, is frequently carried out ineffectively, leaving rabbits fully conscious at the moment their throats are cut. To "make up for" the failure to stun, the footage — particularly raw but necessary to lift the veil that shrouds the farming industry — shows an operator breaking the necks of some rabbits with his bare hands.

Only a fine for those who break the rules

European regulations make pre-slaughter stunning compulsory, although a legislative exemption exists that permits slaughter without stunning in order to accommodate ritual slaughter. Italian law, however, provides only administrative penalties for those who violate the requirements governing slaughter procedures, with the most serious cases carrying a pecuniary penalty of just six thousand euros. The absence of any meaningful criminal consequences, combined with a complete lack of rigorous inspections, fosters a climate of illegality and only serves to increase violations, subjecting animals to what amounts to outright torture.

Greater protections for animals

"This investigation shows that it is necessary to introduce specific regulations to protect animals slaughtered in our country," declared Matteo Cupi, executive director of Animal Equality Italy. "Europe has already called for greater protection for rabbits raised for meat, who will no longer be able to be kept in cages following a vote by the European Parliament in March 2017 — a historic result achieved through an intensive political lobbying campaign by Animal Equality." It is worth remembering, finally, that consumers hold considerable power, through which they can shape the behaviour of companies, asking themselves, for example, how much suffering and violence they are willing to accept in order to satisfy their appetite.