Published 23/02/2018

A series of innovative images, GIFs and memes have been released across social media this month, by leading farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming, to raise awareness of their campaign to End the Cage Age for rabbits throughout the EU.

The digital content has been produced exclusively for the charity by creative influencer Sam Cadman, who is best known for his alternative productions, including cult show Trigger Happy TV.

In a first for social media and charity campaigning, the novel assets display popular emoji’s over shocking images showing the suffering thousands of rabbits have to endure in factory farms across the EU. In contrast there are also lighter hearted films depicting the joy that rabbits feel when they are free from the confines of a cage and able to express their natural behaviours.

“Compassion are a fantastic organisation working tirelessly to share a message that all of us can sympathise with,” Said Sam “Social media is a powerful way to reach a wider audience and I’ve enjoyed working with the team to create this accessible and attention-grabbing collection of digital content. It really is time to #EndTheCageAge and with this campaign people can take action right now, with a single tap”.

Rabbits are the most caged farm animal in Europe, with 99% of them confined in cages - unable to hop, skip and jump or sometimes even to stretch.

“Factory farmed rabbits spend their entire miserable lives crammed into filthy wire-meshed, barren cages,” explained Sean Gifford, Head of Public Campaigns at Compassion in World Farming. “We know that 82% of people across Europe support higher welfare standards for farm animals, yet hundreds of millions of rabbits are farmed inhumanely throughout the EU. This is cruelty on a colossal scale and needs to stop.”

“We hope that shares of this powerful content on social media will help to raise awareness of the plight to Europe’s rabbits. It’s time to End the Cage Age!”

In March 2017 the European Parliament responded to pressure from Compassion’s supporters, and voted in favour of protection for farmed rabbits. This landmark Parliamentary vote was seen as a real breakthrough on the path to ending the cage age. Yet one year later, no concrete steps have been taken, and rabbits across Europe are still suffering in cages.

Compassion is now calling on Agricultural Ministers to make the welfare of rabbits a priority, and persuade the European Commission to introduce a new law.

To support the charity’s campaign please visit www.ciwf.org/cages