MISC / Are rabbit cafes unethical?
In Tokyo, animal cafes are becoming more and more common. From cats to owls to hedgehogs!
There's no doubt that some of these exotic animal cafes are extremely questionable, especially when considering the animals' natural habitat and normal wild behaviour.
But one type of animal cafe caught my eye in particular - rabbit cafes.
This is because my sister has two pet bunnies and I come in contact with them quite frequently. I've become extremely fond of rabbits. I get sent pictures and videos of the pair daily, and often talk to my sister about rabbit care, hoping to promote proper rabbit care via social media. As I also create infographics about rabbit care, I've made sure to do sufficient research in order to spread accurate information.
I decided to google the top rabbit cafes in Tokyo and used this blog article and the rabbit cafes referred to in the article.
The biggest issue I found with rabbit cafes is the living space they are contained in.
Rabbits are active animals - they do zoomies, flop, and lie stretched on the floor, and just in general need quite a lot of space to be happy. If they do not have a large enough living space, then they should at last have a large exercise space, like a wire pen or run.
A rabbit's living space should be a minimum of 12 square feet and their exercise space should be a minimum of 32 square feet.
This is why a small cage or hutch is not enough.
Additionally, they should not have their feet exposed directly to wire for long periods of time as it hurts them. Hay as both bedding and food is extremely important.
Okay, so now that you know about how much space rabbits should have, let's take a look at this 'top 5' list!
[Disclaimer: I have never visited the following cafes. I did not pick these cafes to specifically 'bash' them, I just wanted to simply point out the common practices found at MANY rabbit cafes in Japan.
1. 'Ra.a.g.f'
Their website design is beautiful and features photos of their rabbits. They do not show how the rabbits live, however I found many pictures on their TripAdvisor.
According to this review of the establishment, the rabbits take turns being let out of their cages.
2. Usagi Cafe Ohisama
I could not find their website but their trip advisor seemed to have a good rating. Unfortunately they also use cages, but there were no photos with bunnies' feet exposed on wire which was good.
According to the reviews, the shop is wider than Ra.a.g.f and 2-3 rabbits are allowed to run around at one time.
Some rabbits also had buddies.
3. Ms. Bunny
Like others, there are many cages, and for some reason hedgehogs too at this establishment.
You can see from the images, the cages are tiny, not letting the rabbits run around at all. They also lack the sufficient amount of hay and use water bottles. (Using bottles is fine but not recommended due to the spread of bacteria.)
4. Cafe Mignon
The cages don't have a wire bottom but there is also a lack of hay.
Just like the other rabbit cafes, there is a section with cages stacked on the shelves.
5. Mimi
I was hopeful when I saw the description on the All About Japan article: "Freely hopping bunnies galore! Unlike other rabbit cafés, this Ikebukuro shop keeps its furry friends out of their cages."
Looking at the pictures, they seemed to be able to freely roam about the room with cages in the background (cage doors are open!). I want to be optimistic and hope they don't spend their time isolated in the cages for any long periods of time but I can't be sure.
For some reason, they also have otters at this establishment.
As stated before, there are many other rabbit cafes which are run in a similar way - rabbits stay in their cages until made to play with a customer, so I am not targeting these five in particular.
I used these five examples as they are quite popular and busy cafes, rated highly online.
Another thing which does not sit well with me was the amount these rabbits would have to be handled on a day to day basis.
Rabbits have many different personalities but generally they don't like being handled or picked up too much. This doesn't mean you can never pick up a rabbit but excessive handling is not ideal.
Additionally depending on their personality, some rabbits may feel more scared when presented with strangers. Remember: rabbits are naturally prey in the wild so they will have such traits. They are specially designed to watch out for predators.
Mishandling a rabbit and having them jump out of your hands may cause the rabbit injury.
I can understand the feeling of wanting to go to an animal cafe. In the past before I became vegan, I visited an owl cafe and a cat cafe. I did enjoy these experiences, especially as an animal lover. I simply thought it was a fun experience without regarding the feelings of the animals.
We may get a 30 minute pleasure from seeing and touching these animals, but they have to live, perhaps, most of their lives in certain conditions that may not be ideal.
Not all rabbit cafes treat their rabbits the exact same way, but for those who do use cages and let their rabbits get excessively handled are certainly not being kind to them.
I'm sure the staff of these establishments love their animals dearly, but their living conditions and business is questionable.
We also need to remember that rabbits are extremely sensitive animals. We need to treat them with care. It can be hard to do everything right when owning a pet rabbit and sometimes we are fed wrong information which leads to improper living conditions. We need to be more aware of their needs, especially when pet stores advertise improper homes (eg. cages) and food (eg. cereal mixes, yogurt drops, etc.) targeted at bunny owners. It makes people think this is okay when it is not.
I cannot condone the use of animals for profit, so I am rather against animal cafes.
However, lately I have been hearing of cat shelters turning into cat cafes to help promote the rescue cats and hopefully find owners quickly by allowing people to play with them. This also helps them raise funds for the cats.
I think this is a great idea, especially when pet shelters are not as common in Japan and pet stores selling designer pets are rampant. What do you think?
Here is an example of a cat rescue cafe.
We should be more mindful about all our actions to ensure we don't support the harm of animal living being. Visiting a rabbit cafe that uses cages may not seem as bad as, say, eating meat, however, it's something we can easily avoid.
To end, here's a video of one of my sister's bunnies flopping!
There's no doubt that some of these exotic animal cafes are extremely questionable, especially when considering the animals' natural habitat and normal wild behaviour.
But one type of animal cafe caught my eye in particular - rabbit cafes.
This is because my sister has two pet bunnies and I come in contact with them quite frequently. I've become extremely fond of rabbits. I get sent pictures and videos of the pair daily, and often talk to my sister about rabbit care, hoping to promote proper rabbit care via social media. As I also create infographics about rabbit care, I've made sure to do sufficient research in order to spread accurate information.
I decided to google the top rabbit cafes in Tokyo and used this blog article and the rabbit cafes referred to in the article.
The biggest issue I found with rabbit cafes is the living space they are contained in.
Rabbits are active animals - they do zoomies, flop, and lie stretched on the floor, and just in general need quite a lot of space to be happy. If they do not have a large enough living space, then they should at last have a large exercise space, like a wire pen or run.
A rabbit's living space should be a minimum of 12 square feet and their exercise space should be a minimum of 32 square feet.
This is why a small cage or hutch is not enough.
Additionally, they should not have their feet exposed directly to wire for long periods of time as it hurts them. Hay as both bedding and food is extremely important.
Okay, so now that you know about how much space rabbits should have, let's take a look at this 'top 5' list!
[Disclaimer: I have never visited the following cafes. I did not pick these cafes to specifically 'bash' them, I just wanted to simply point out the common practices found at MANY rabbit cafes in Japan.
1. 'Ra.a.g.f'
Their website design is beautiful and features photos of their rabbits. They do not show how the rabbits live, however I found many pictures on their TripAdvisor.
2. Usagi Cafe Ohisama
I could not find their website but their trip advisor seemed to have a good rating. Unfortunately they also use cages, but there were no photos with bunnies' feet exposed on wire which was good.
According to the reviews, the shop is wider than Ra.a.g.f and 2-3 rabbits are allowed to run around at one time.
Some rabbits also had buddies.
3. Ms. Bunny
Like others, there are many cages, and for some reason hedgehogs too at this establishment.
You can see from the images, the cages are tiny, not letting the rabbits run around at all. They also lack the sufficient amount of hay and use water bottles. (Using bottles is fine but not recommended due to the spread of bacteria.)
4. Cafe Mignon
The cages don't have a wire bottom but there is also a lack of hay.
Just like the other rabbit cafes, there is a section with cages stacked on the shelves.
I was hopeful when I saw the description on the All About Japan article: "Freely hopping bunnies galore! Unlike other rabbit cafés, this Ikebukuro shop keeps its furry friends out of their cages."
Looking at the pictures, they seemed to be able to freely roam about the room with cages in the background (cage doors are open!). I want to be optimistic and hope they don't spend their time isolated in the cages for any long periods of time but I can't be sure.
For some reason, they also have otters at this establishment.
~~~
As stated before, there are many other rabbit cafes which are run in a similar way - rabbits stay in their cages until made to play with a customer, so I am not targeting these five in particular.
I used these five examples as they are quite popular and busy cafes, rated highly online.
Another thing which does not sit well with me was the amount these rabbits would have to be handled on a day to day basis.
Rabbits have many different personalities but generally they don't like being handled or picked up too much. This doesn't mean you can never pick up a rabbit but excessive handling is not ideal.
Additionally depending on their personality, some rabbits may feel more scared when presented with strangers. Remember: rabbits are naturally prey in the wild so they will have such traits. They are specially designed to watch out for predators.
Mishandling a rabbit and having them jump out of your hands may cause the rabbit injury.
I can understand the feeling of wanting to go to an animal cafe. In the past before I became vegan, I visited an owl cafe and a cat cafe. I did enjoy these experiences, especially as an animal lover. I simply thought it was a fun experience without regarding the feelings of the animals.
We may get a 30 minute pleasure from seeing and touching these animals, but they have to live, perhaps, most of their lives in certain conditions that may not be ideal.
Not all rabbit cafes treat their rabbits the exact same way, but for those who do use cages and let their rabbits get excessively handled are certainly not being kind to them.
I'm sure the staff of these establishments love their animals dearly, but their living conditions and business is questionable.
We also need to remember that rabbits are extremely sensitive animals. We need to treat them with care. It can be hard to do everything right when owning a pet rabbit and sometimes we are fed wrong information which leads to improper living conditions. We need to be more aware of their needs, especially when pet stores advertise improper homes (eg. cages) and food (eg. cereal mixes, yogurt drops, etc.) targeted at bunny owners. It makes people think this is okay when it is not.
I cannot condone the use of animals for profit, so I am rather against animal cafes.
However, lately I have been hearing of cat shelters turning into cat cafes to help promote the rescue cats and hopefully find owners quickly by allowing people to play with them. This also helps them raise funds for the cats.
I think this is a great idea, especially when pet shelters are not as common in Japan and pet stores selling designer pets are rampant. What do you think?
Here is an example of a cat rescue cafe.
We should be more mindful about all our actions to ensure we don't support the harm of animal living being. Visiting a rabbit cafe that uses cages may not seem as bad as, say, eating meat, however, it's something we can easily avoid.
To end, here's a video of one of my sister's bunnies flopping!
For anyone curious, their user name is @mallowandstorm on Instagram!
Comments
Post a Comment