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Local and welfare concerns over planning applications lodged for first intensive rabbit farms since 1990s, Guardian can reveal Planning applications for at least six rabbit battery farms have been lodged with local authorities. The intensive farms, which would be the first for rabbits in the UK in 15 years, have been proposed at sites from Nottinghamshire to Cornwall. Each would house up to 1,100 animals in wire cages stacked three high in windowless barns. The rabbits would be sent to slaughter for their meat at 12 weeks old. The developer, Philip Kerry of T&S Nurseries in Grantham, Lincolnshire, told the Guardian that the farms would be “very green and very sustainable”. He said: “The environment will be light and airy, with lots of space in there, and the cages are 18% bigger than required [by law]. And we hope to retire the does after four to five years and give them away as pets, if there is the demand.” The decision on three planning applications are imminent, in Fiskerton , Granby and East Bridgford , all in Nottinghamshire. A proposal for a site near Truro, Cornwall , was refused after the parish council objected and another at Barnack, Cambridgeshire, was also rejected, on the grounds that it would lead to the loss of agricultural land. The outcome of an application for a farm at Gresham in Norfolk appears to have been withdrawn. Kerry claimed he already had three applications for rabbit battery farms granted, but refused to say where they were, saying: “I don’t want to be unpopular everywhere.” The plans come amid controversies over other large intensive farms for pigs and cows. An application for a “mega farm” housing up to 25,000 pigs near Foston, Derbyshire, has been resubmitted to the county council after being withdrawn from the district council in January . The company, Midland Pigs Producers, had used lawyers Carter-Ruck to threaten libel proceedings over an objection lodged by the organic farming trade body the Soil Association . In February, a proposal for a Lincolnshire “super dairy” housing nearly 4,000 cows was withdrawn after objections from the Environment Agency and 1,600 objections lodged with local planners. Michele Danan, at campaigners Compassion in World Farming , said: “It’s time for us to be banning these cruel systems, not to be introducing them. I don’t think that the public will be in favour when they learn that this friendly and inquisitive animal, regarded by many as favourite furry pets, is going to be deprived of their basic rights – to be free from pain or mental suffering.” Some local people have concerns about increased traffic and disposal of waste. “I don’t think there’s any need, and it’s not kind,” said Tracy Annable, who lives a couple of hundred metres from one proposed farm in Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire. “They are moving away from battery farming in chickens, so it seems like a retrograde step.” The proposed rabbit farms would be the first in Britain for at least 15 years. Previous farms closed down, undercut by foreign rabbit farms with lower welfare standards, particularly in eastern Europe. What has changed, according to Kerry, is the ability to produce lower cost feed. The facilities would include a hydroponic pond in which barley grass would be grown, providing 60% of the rabbits’ diet. Grain would provide the rest, and Kerry said his company would mill its own dry feed, saving more money. Each of the battery farms would contain 280 cages, containing 250 does and 30 bucks. The doe would share the 110cm by 60cm cage with her seven to nine kittens until they reached five weeks of age. At that point, said Kerry, the young rabbits would be housed on the floor of the barn with access to an outdoor run measuring three by nine metres. The does would remain in the cages and be “retired” at four to five years old, when their productivity drops. Kerry said 3,000 tonnes of rabbit meat was eaten each year in Britain, virtually all of imported. Most of his rabbits would be New Zealand whites, bred for meat, but some Angora rabbits would be kept for their fur. Kerry argued that, per kg of meat, rabbits consumed much less grain than cattle. Danan said the cages were too small to allow the rabbits to move around normally by hopping or running or to get any meaningful exercise. Bare wire floors, she said, led to painful sores on the footpads and hocks of the animals and a barren environment could lead to rabbits developing abnormal behaviours such as excessive grooming and in the worst cases, cannibalism. “Our information shows that in these intensive systems, rabbits can be so starved of any stimulation, that out of sheer frustration they eat each others’ ears – not an image many of us would want to have in our heads when eating a stew or wearing an angora jumper,” said Danan. The land on which planning permission is being sought for the farms is owned by a company called BCH UK Ltd, which is listed at Companies House as a development and real estate business, and is owned by Kerry. He said he had not kept livestock before, but wanted to find an additional use for the horticultural nurseries and vineyards run by T&S Nurseries. That company, named on the planning applications, was dissolved in September 2010 . Farming Animal welfare The meat industry Animals Planning policy Local government Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk