Antwerp –
Animal rights organization Active for Justice is pleased that activists defaced the facade of Grand Café De Rooden Hoed with chalk and stickers this week. “Our fun campaign ‘All rabbits free’ is well received. Two Antwerp restaurants have already announced that they will remove rabbit from their menu.”
On January 24, the Dutch animal rights organization Ongehoord released images of the Konzo rabbit farm in Hoogstraten. The footage, taken with hidden cameras over the Christmas period, shows a number of dead, sick and injured rabbits as well as the farm’s owner brutalizing his rabbits. In this way, Ongehoord wants to open the debate about practices in the rabbit industry.
Active for Justice
A few weeks after the images were released, Active for Justice, another Dutch animal rights organization, launched a new campaign, ‘All Rabbits Free’. The organization wants to discourage restaurants from serving rabbit meat to their customers.
Last week the facades of several Antwerp restaurants were defaced. Cas Goossens from Grand Café De Rooden Hoed was not amused with the chalk and stickers on his facade. “I have also heard that colleagues from Het Elfde Gebod, where the facade was also defaced, have also received negative reviews. That is a bridge too far.”
Don’t deface yourself
Active for Justice, which publishes a list of Antwerp restaurants that serve rabbit on its website, did not deface the walls of Grand Café De Rooden Hoed itself.
“This was done by unknown animal activists who are sympathetic to our campaign,” says Ruud Van Vliet of Active for Justice. “We really like that our campaign is being picked up in a fun way. The fact that the manager of Grand Café De Rooden Hoed claims that the breeding farm where his rabbit meat comes from is correct is nonsense. No rabbit breeder is correct. Rabbits deserve to live without being caged, raped and murdered. That is precisely why we wanted to protest in Antwerp last Friday. Unfortunately, the police immediately put an end to our peaceful demonstration.”
“Restaurants Gå Nord and the Greek Taverne have informed us that they will be removing rabbit from their menu. We will continue until eventually no restaurant or store sells rabbit anymore.” (vkk)
