Rabbits hop on to the menu on Melbourne's top restaurants

GOURMANDS are gnawing their way through Victoria's thriving rabbit population as city restaurants carve up thousands of the fluffy pests every week.

Rabbit suppliers are struggling to meet demand from Melbourne's top chefs turning humble underground mutton into top-dollar dishes.

As lamb and beef prices skyrocket and diners become more adventurous with game meats, rabbit is suddenly hot property at less than $10/kg.

And there's no shortage of wild bunnies in country Victoria. Hunters say the population has doubled since last year.

Maybe it comes down to Chinese astrology - 2011 is the year of the white rabbit.

But Peter "Rabbit" Golden says it all comes down to good rain, mild weather and loads of feed. It was a good week for the central Victorian hunter, who nabbed 3000 wild rabbits.

"There was a time when rabbit was poor man's tucker, but not any more," he said. "People can't get enough of them, but then lamb's pretty dear."

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Freedom For Farmed Rabbits

In Australia thousands of rabbits are factory farmed, kept in dirty windowless sheds, similar to battery hens. The sheds confine rabbits to small overcrowded metal cages. They are kept in these cages until they are killed at around 1.5kg (usually10-12 weeks of age). Their bodies are sold to restaurants, butchers and select supermarkets. Although it is not known exactly how many producers are in business at one time, as of 2007 there are 43 rabbit farms Australia-wide (except in Queensland). The average farm imprisons 300 breeding does per farm. With the growing popularity of rabbit meat, the amount of farms and rabbits killed is set to rise. Global rabbit meat consumption in 2004 was 1.1 million tonnes. Approximately half this amount comes from farms. Raising rabbits for meat is frequently promoted as an easy and lucrative money-maker, and often attracts people to the industry with little or no experience. There is very little government inspection on rabbit farms: these places can go unlicensed and unregulated for years.


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