A post on Facebook claims several animal rescue centres had to stop adoptions in fear that people were purchasing rabbits and chickens to eat has been shared thousands of times.
The post says “West Berk’s small animal rescue has received numerous messages asking to purchase all of our bunnies at once. The chicken welfare association has also stopped adoptions. People are buying animals as LIVE FOOD because of the food shortage.”
It is true that a group in Berkshire paused rabbit adoptions out of fear that the rabbits were being bought to be eaten, supposedly due to food shortages during the current coronavirus pandemic.
However the RSPCA told Full Fact that they are not aware of any cases of people trying to buy pets as food. As such, there is no reason to believe that such activity is widespread.
In a Facebook post from 22 March, one of West Berkshire Small Animal Rescue’s admins said they are not letting anyone new register for adoption. It said “I have had numerous messages and phone calls now that were highly suspicious. 1 claimed to want the bunnies for "livestock" and another admitting to wanting to use the bunnies for meat but that they would be killed "nicely".”
It is also true that a chicken welfare trust has stopped new adoptions, although the reason for this is unclear.
The British Hen Welfare Trust announced that it has received unprecedented interest in adopting hens, but are “now unable to carry out any hen collections or rehomings until the Covid-19 outbreak has passed.” It also adds that all its staff are now working from home.
Full Fact has reached out to the group to ask for the reason behind this. An alternative explanation for the rise of interest in hens could be the ongoing reports of people looking to buy chickens so they can produce their own eggs.