Nearly 25,000 People Help PETA Ensure Rejected Rabbit Farm Doesn’t Get Green Light

For Immediate Release:

10 March 2017

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

NEARLY 25,000 PEOPLE HELP PETA ENSURE REJECTED RABBIT FARM DOESN’T GET GREEN LIGHT

Gentle Rabbits Must Not Endure This Cruelty Says Group

Stafford, Staffordshire – Last year, after Stafford Borough Council received the largest-ever number of public responses in opposition to a planning application in that borough – including 17,000 from PETA supporters – it rejected a proposal for a rabbit farm to be built near Gnosall. That should have been the end of it, but one year on, POE Limited – the company behind the plans – has submitted an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate in an attempt to overturn the council’s decision.

In response, almost 25,000 concerned locals and members of the public have rallied together to sign a PETA petition urging the Planning Inspectorate to reject the appeal, which, if approved, would condemn countless rabbits to lives of misery.

“Rabbits raised on factory farms rarely, if ever, smell fresh air or feel the warmth of the sun on their backs before they’re sent off to slaughter”, says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “For the sake of animals, the environment, and the values that our society holds dear, the Planning Inspectorate must uphold Stafford Borough Council’s decision not to allow this monstrosity to be built.”

As PETA highlights in its petition, the cages that the rabbits would be kept in appear to be around only 70 centimetres long and 40 centimetres high, meaning that the animals would be unable to stretch out, rear up on their hind legs, hop, dig, or engage in other natural forms of behaviour. Campaigners also warn that because fur farming has been banned in the UK for more than 15 years, giving the green light to a facility that derives a substantial part of its profits from the sale of rabbits’ skins, would also effectively turn back the clock on Britain’s moral evolution.

The proposed farm is also likely to generate large quantities of environmental pollutants, including manure and toxic chemicals, and the potential contamination of water supplies could have a negative impact on wildlife. On a larger scale, the meat industry is among the main contributors of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.

PETA’s letter to the Planning Inspectorate is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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