Rabbits, farmed in Europe and in China, suffer the same unsanitary and inhumane conditions as the chickens of the American poultry industry. Any viewer of Robert Kenner’s documentary “Food, Inc.” is familiar with the crowded hangers in which chicken farmers raise their animals. Similarly, rabbits produced for their meat spend their entire lives in cages. An investigative report from the organization CIWF (Compassion In World Farming) exposed farmers cramming rabbits into cages. They allow the rabbits’ waste and carcasses to build up underneath the cages’ mesh bottoms, in some instances, in piles “so high, you’d have to wade across them just to check on the rabbits.” Stalactites of their feces hang from the bars. Disease spreads quickly. Most of the rabbits are missing patches of fur, or have eyes so sore they’ve sealed closed with pus. According to the CIWF, rabbits are treated with more antibiotics that any other animal except chickens and pigs. The report labels the treatments as “used to keep these rabbits alive just long enough to get to slaughter.”

Rabbits are the fourth-most farmed animals in the world. Historica Canada counts over 700 million rabbits produced globally every year. François Lebas, President of French association Cuniculture, reported in 2008 that Italy produces over 220,000 tons of rabbit annually. Spain produces 105,000 tons; France, 80,000 tons. Despite the immensity of this production, there is “no species-specific legislation protecting the welfare of farmed rabbits in the E.U.” (CIWF). China, which accounts for 30% of world production, also lacks protection for rabbits. The Humane Society of the United States says that even the USDA’s interpretation of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) allows rabbit farming to go unregulated.

When I first gave this presentation in my French class, my teacher, Mme. Bird, laughed. Even for someone native to France (and she’s very loyal to her French culture), I think rabbits struck her as ridiculously irrelevant to her daily life. But if you look at our care towards our mass-produced chickens and cows in America, you would think that a similarly massive production of rabbits in Europe would result in at least a little more regulation than here. The U.S. has the USDA and the HMSA regulating beef and poultry, and documentaries like “Food, Inc.” pulling our attention to animal abuse. Europe has the European Food Safety Authority, which even sets standards specific to animals like dairy cows and pigs.

But rabbits are overlooked. The fact that Europeans are bigger rabbit eaters makes no difference between the E.U. and the U.S. in terms of regulation. At least in the case of rabbits, what we eat does not correspond to what we care to see regulated.