The Issue

A rabbit is a rabbit – protect them all! This inherent lack of clear distinction between pets and farmed animals poses an insurmountable regulatory challenge, as stolen pets can still end up in slaughterhouses. Even though the Rabbit Meat Regulations claim to apply only to farmed rabbits, this loophole means any rabbit is at risk.

Your signature and share to all social media are crucial. Strengthening protections for rabbits is a vital step towards enhancing all pet welfare legislation – for dogs and cats alike – and comprehensively closing dangerous loopholes in the meat trade.

🐇 Who is affected?
The South African government is proposing new draft regulations for rabbit meat under the Meat Safety Act. These regulations, open for public comment, could lead to the industrial-scale farming and slaughter of domestic rabbits — animals commonly kept as beloved pets. The draft defines categories of abattoirs, including 'low throughput' facilities able to process up to 2,000 rabbits per day, and rural facilities processing 50 per day.

This marks a massive expansion of rabbit meat production beyond any artisanal or rural intent. Unlike wild rabbits, those destined for slaughter under these proposals are domesticated — gentle creatures bred for their tame nature, often to ensure they do not struggle during slaughter. Tragically, some may even be stolen pets. These are sentient animals subjected to a terrifying fate: short lives in intensive confinement, then transport and death in facilities that prioritise volume over welfare.

The regulations reference post-slaughter hygiene practices — such as evisceration and dressing — but provide no meaningful verifiable, auditable standards for humane treatment, stunning, handling, or welfare enforcement before and during slaughter. The omission of such standards places thousands of animals at risk of immense suffering.

⚖️ What is at stake?
If passed without robust welfare safeguards, these regulations would institutionalise cruelty within South Africa’s rabbit meat industry. The lack of enforceable animal welfare provisions means that practices like ineffective stunning or manual neck-breaking could result in prolonged agony. The silent suffering of such gentle, prey animals — highly susceptible to stress and fear — would be baked into law.

Moreover, industrial rabbit farming poses serious public health risks. Rabbits are prone to diseases such as viral haemorrhagic disease and myxomatosis, which spread rapidly in high-density environments. Without strict biosecurity and veterinary oversight — which these regulations do not adequately provide — the door is open to zoonotic disease transmission and food safety failures.

The regulations may also conflict with the Animal Protection Act 1962, which mandates humane treatment. Permitting large-scale slaughter with no enforceable welfare oversight risks contradicting existing South African law and creates confusion for enforcement agencies.

Internationally, campaigns such as Ricky Gervais’s successful petition against rabbit fur farming in the UK (despite operating on a smaller scale) demonstrate that public sentiment firmly opposes cruelty toward rabbits. South Africa must not fall behind on this basic measure of ethical progress.

🧪 What about disease prevention?
The proposed regulations make no provision for mandatory veterinary care, vaccination, or welfare-related health planning on rabbit farms. Despite referencing disease inspection at the point of slaughter, they do not require any on-farm disease prevention — a glaring omission, particularly in the face of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD), a fatal and highly contagious virus affecting rabbits.

Instead, farmers are only required to declare past use of medication or health issues when sending rabbits for slaughter. There is no obligation to vaccinate against RHD or to treat sick animals prior to transport. Rabbits found to be ill on arrival may be condemned or killed, but this reactive approach is too late to prevent suffering or stop outbreaks. Fundamentally failing to meet modern preventative public health frameworks.

This model prioritises meat safety after the fact, ignoring the health and welfare of live animals. In doing so, it places domestic, sentient animals — many of whom are gentle and stress-prone — at risk of both disease and prolonged suffering.

This approach contravenes the African Union’s Animal Welfare Strategy for Africa, which calls for preventative care, the reduction of disease burden, and the humane treatment of animals in all sectors, including food systems. It also falls short of the standards in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), to which South Africa is a party. These international commitments require governments to integrate welfare, health, and biosecurity — especially for vulnerable species.

 🌍 Breaching African and Global Animal Welfare Standards
The proposed regulations not only endanger animal welfare domestically but also violate South Africa’s commitments under African and international frameworks.

1. African Union’s Animal Welfare Strategy for Africa (AWSA)
South Africa is a signatory to the African Union’s AWSA, which calls for:

• Prevention of cruelty to animals,
• Humane treatment in all production systems,
• Inclusion of animal welfare in public health and policy planning.

By failing to mandate humane handling, stunning, transport standards, and on-farm disease control, the proposed rabbit regulations fall significantly short of these African standards. AWSA promotes the Five Freedoms of animal welfare — including freedom from pain and fear — which this draft legislation undermines.

2. World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)
South Africa is also a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The WOAH’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code, specifically:

• Chapter 7.5 (Slaughter of animals),
• Chapter 7.6 (Transport),
• Chapter 7.9 (Welfare in production systems),

Sets out minimum welfare standards for animals used in food production.

WOAH standards require:

• Humane slaughter (with effective stunning),
• Training of personnel in animal handling,
• Monitoring of welfare outcomes,
• Disease prevention and biosecurity.

However, the draft rabbit meat regulations do not fully meet these requirements, as they lack compulsory stunning methods, clear handling guidance, and welfare inspection protocols. This failure to align with WOAH standards could place South Africa in breach of its international obligations, leaving it vulnerable to global scrutiny, reputational damage, and trade consequences.

3. Global Oversight and Influence
Though WOAH and the African Union do not directly legislate, their standards inform national law, global trade compliance, and animal health strategy. South Africa’s failure to align its rabbit meat regulations with these frameworks opens the door to international scrutiny and reputational harm.

⏰ Why is now the time to act?
The draft regulations for public comment closed May 27, 2025. This is our one vital opportunity to stop the institutionalisation of suffering in its tracks.

If we don’t act now, this moment of public scrutiny will pass — and cruelty will be codified into law. Once approved, these regulations will enable the silent torture of thousands of domestic rabbits daily, and open the door to widespread exploitation with no protections in place. 

Even though the comment period has closed, you can still sign and share the petition. We still urgently require signatures to demonstrate global opposition and strengthen the call for reform.

We advocate for a complete ban on rabbit meat production and slaughter, recognising its inherent cruelty and serious public health risks.

It is imperative that rabbits receive immediate legal recognition as sentient, domestic animals, not livestock.

We therefore call for:

🐰 A complete ban on rabbit meat production and slaughter due to its inherent cruelty and public health risk.

🐾 Immediate legal recognition of rabbits as sentient, domestic animals, not livestock.

📛 An end to the establishment or expansion of high-throughput rabbit abattoirs.

📌 The introduction of strict animal welfare legislation covering any handling or breeding of domestic rabbits, including a prohibition on slaughter.

🌱 Government support for plant-based food systems and ethical farming alternatives.

🔍 A national investigation into the inclusion of domestic and stolen rabbits in meat operations.

🏠 Support for rabbit rescue organisations in taking in dumped rabbits from closed rabbit farms, with government-backed financial assistance to aid in their care and rehoming efforts.

If one country demonstrates that this is unacceptable, it can influence global norms and encourage action elsewhere. 

The time has come to end the cruel and exploitative rabbit meat industry for good. We demand legislation that reflects our ethical responsibility to protect these intelligent and social animals.

Global signatures welcome! Check your email - inbox and junk and click on the email to make your signature count.

This is your opportunity to stand against cruelty. Sign this petition to demand that South Africa puts compassion before profit and protects its animals from state-sanctioned suffering.

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