§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) the number or weight of home-killed rabbits sold annually in Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the last three years (to any convenient date); (2) how long have experiments been going on in designing humane rabbit traps, and whether any trap has yet been designed comparable to the ordinary gin trap as regards weight, efficiency and price.]
§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (LORD CARRINGTON)My Lords, there are no records of the number or weight of home-killed rabbits sold annually in the United Kingdom, but it has been estimated by the trade that during the last three years an average of about 40 million home-killed wild rabbits have been sold annually for human consumption. Efforts to devise a humane rabbit trap have been going on for many years, but I do not know of any trap so far devised that compares with the gin trap as regards weight, efficiency and price.