T&S Rabbits: is a win for activists the final nail in the coffin?
Animal activists working to thwart the unscrupulous and highly suspicious plans of a notorious UK rabbit farm operator have won a great victory this week. Claire Hamlett reports on the win and gives us a rundown of the saga so far.
Animal advocates have reason to celebrate as an application for a new rabbit farm has been refused planning permission by Rutland Council. The proposals for the farm - submitted by Phil Kerry, owner of T&S Rabbits, a company that sells rabbit fur and meat - were met with fierce and persistent resistance from activists and campaigners.
“Such wonderful news on the rejection of plans for a huge-scale rabbit meat and fur operation near Rutland Water - and very timely, just ahead of Easter,” says Tor Bailey, Campaign Manager at Animal Aid. “This result really is a testament to people power and the impact we can have when joining together to campaign for animal rights. Thousands of people spoke out to object to these plans, to raise awareness and protest, our voices have been heard.”
The initial campaign received significant media attention, but while the matter has since faded from public view, activists have been busy keeping up the pressure on Rutland and Nottinghamshire Councils where planning applications had been awaiting a decision.
Throughout March, grassroots group Rabbit Farm Resistance and others were working to spread the word about the upcoming decision from Rutland Council, distributing leaflets and conducting a mass phone-in to the Council, with callers trying to get put through to the planning officer in charge of the case, Nick Hodgett. But Hodgett apparently refused to take any calls, choosing instead to leave it to the Council’s customer service staff to field the numerous calls.
On March 20, activists gathered outside Kerry’s Rutland site, where he was already farming a small number of rabbits (the planning application was to expand this to a capacity of 10,000 rabbits). According to Rabbit Farm Resistance, workers quickly removed all but one rabbit from the site ahead of the arrival of the demonstrators. The remaining rabbit was taken into care. On March 15, another group of activists liberated 11 rabbits that seemed to have been abandoned to die at another of Kerry’s properties in Granby, Nottinghamshire. Another two rabbits, who appeared to be in ill health, were surrendered to activists by workers at Kerry’s East Bridgford farm in September 2021.
The rabbit saved from Rutland has been named Ronnie, Rabbit Farm Resistance told Surge, “and he is safe in an unnamed sanctuary, he's in relatively good condition physically but is very mentally scarred and terrified of human contact.” As for the two from East Bridgford, one, named Tommy, sadly died a month after his rescue. “He had been left so long with an inner ear infection and ear mite infestation that it had caused a head tilt and had eaten away at the bones in his ear,” said Rabbit Farm Resistance. “He had extremely complex operations to help repair this but ultimately he was too far gone and passed on the 10th of December, despite everyone's best efforts.” The other, named Juneau, “is doing amazingly well, but will never totally recover from what happened to her on the farm and requires ongoing and lifelong treatment.”
Never miss an article
Stay up-to-date with the weekly Surge newsletter to never miss an article, media production or investigation. We respect your privacy.
The rejection from Rutland Council is the latest in a string of setbacks for Kerry and T&S Rabbits. Applications to expand his so-called ‘free-range’ farms in Cornwall and Buckinghamshire were refused on planning and development grounds, as was a proposal to add a slaughterhouse to a farm in Atlow, Derbyshire. In November 2021, Kerry was also ordered by Derbyshire Dales Council to dismantle his farm in Atlow and remove the dwelling he had erected there, but he failed to comply with the order by the deadline. Now that he is appealing the rejected applications to build a slaughterhouse on the Atlow site, the structures are being allowed to remain until the matter is resolved.
The rationale for Kerry’s farms has always been deeply suspicious. Last April, we wrote about why the public was right to be sceptical of his claim that the farms were free-range. This was based on both the footage of the Atlow farm obtained by Animal Aid - which showed cramped hutches with rabbits apparently not given access to the outdoors for several days - and given that there is no legal definition of free-range in the UK when it comes to rabbits. Moreover, Kerry’s justification for opening more farms to meet the UK’s demand for rabbit meat appears to be unfounded, with no evidence that there is in fact any demand for farmed rabbits whatsoever. When activists first raised the alarm about the new planning applications, they pointed out that Kerry’s plan to farm the rabbits for meat was actually a smokescreen for farming them for their fur, which has been illegal in England since 2000. A loophole in the law means that fur can be sold as a by-product of farming animals for their meat.
But Rabbit Farm Resistance suspects that the rabbit farming enterprise as a whole is just a ploy for Kerry to get planning permission for land that he wants to develop as part of his real estate business. T&S Rabbits is not a real company, and the alternative company name Kerry has used in his applications ‘T&S Nurseries’ is dissolved.
The other company he owns is B.C.H. UK Ltd, which buys and sells real estate. Rabbit Farm Resistance believes that Kerry’s “ultimate goal” is to develop “unspoilt rural land, which would otherwise never obtain planning permission for personal dwellings … He uses the prospect that rabbits require a worker to be present on-site 24/7 to attempt to gain planning permission for a temporary dwelling such as a caravan or log cabin. Once this has been in place for three years and the ‘farm’ has been proven to be profitable, it can be replaced with a permanent brick-built dwelling - opening the doors for development on the once unspoilt land.” The rabbits may not be Kerry’s primary business, but their suffering is nonetheless real.
There is one remaining rabbit farm planning application yet to be decided, at East Bridgford in Nottinghamshire where Kerry wants to build a slaughterhouse. Rabbit Farm Resistance is asking for people to keep up the pressure on Rushcliffe Borough Council to reject it. Kerry has also appealed the rejections of his applications in Cornwall and Buckinghamshire, to which the public can also object.
Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.
Your support makes a huge difference to us. Supporting Surge with a monthly or one-off donation enables us to continue our work to end all animal oppression.
LATEST ARTICLES