Animal Aid began campaigning against rabbit farming in Spring 2021, undertaking investigations, securing media coverage, and fighting several planning applications which were subsequently withdrawn or thrown out. T&S Rabbits were exploiting a loophole in the law, which states that while rabbits cannot be farmed purely for fur, they can bred for meat and then the fur sold as a ‘by product’.
In early 2021, our investigators found rabbits confined permanently to their cages, unable to socialise, stretch, sit upright, and with no access to the outdoors. Following this footage and the efforts of dedicated activists on the ground, the franchise's application for another farm was refused.
Animal Aid received a tip-off that building work had already begun, before the planning application's decision, and that rabbits were already being held. We sent a team who once again found rabbits confined in tiny hutches on stilts. Some were housed in isolation, which is stressful for sociable prey animals, while others were crowded.
By August 2022, the T&S Rabbits operation had closed down and the 202 rabbits imprisoned there were liberated. This momentous result was captured by Martin Pope, below.
