SHERMAN OAKS—Last Chance for Animals, a non-profit which aims to end animal exploitation, will stage a protest against rabbit torture in front of Gelson’s on July 19 at noon.
The organization recently protested against rabbit cruelty in front of the West Hollywood Bristol Farms.
Nina Hauptman, director of campaigns for the non-profit, said they are protesting at Gelson’s for several reasons.
“Our investigations team went undercover to the Pel-Freez processing plant in Arkansas, which is America’s largest rabbit slaughterhouse, and found severe cruelty,” Hauptman said. “We found that a handful of stores in the Los Angeles area sell Pel-Freez rabbit, and Gelson’s is one of them. We want the people of Los Angeles to know the truth about the cruelty, and for Gelson’s to stop carrying rabbit meat.”
Nearly 250 people have said they will attend the protest on the non-profit’s Facebook page. The protest is expected to last two hours.
Hauptman, who estimated that more than 20 people were present for last month’s protest at Bristol Farms, claimed rabbit torture in America is a serious issue since no USDA regulations exist to protect the animals.
“They are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act, so the torture we found at Pel-Freez happened under the watch of a USDA inspector,” Hauptman said. “The USDA will inspect for ‘wholesomeness’ only when the rabbit slaughterhouse pays them to do so, so the meat can be stamped with a USDA label. But even these inspections are not mandatory and because no federal law protects these rabbits, the inspectors couldn’t do anything about the torture if they wanted to.”
Last Chance for Animals was founded in 1984 by former actor Chris DeRose.
