30/12/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/1CDsH6qs2B/
This person repeatedly commented that there must be something genetically wrong with rabbits because they always see rabbit breeders talking about needing to cull. While they were being disingenuous and finally just admitted they have a problem with rabbit breeders, I thought there may be other people who see the number of rabbits culled by breeders and wonder the same thing.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with rabbits. It’s simply a numbers game. Rabbits produce significantly more offspring per year than other types of livestock. While pigs come close, the reason you don’t hear the word culls used quite as frequently with pigs is because piglet culls are often called “feeders” and sold for somebody else to raise for the freezer. They’re still a cull, they’re just being butchered after a longer growing period than rabbits.
Other types of livestock definitely still have culls. Because they have fewer numbers of babies though it seems like they cull less. But if a cow has only one baby and you cull it, you’ve culled 100% of her offspring. Whereas in a litter of ten kits you might keep one, sell three to other breeders, and butcher six. Sure you butchered six kits but that was only 60% of her offspring from that litter.
Not only do rabbits produce more babies than other livestock, they have more pregnancies per year. Pigs can farrow twice per year. Goats usually kid once per year. Cows calve roughly yearly. Rabbits however can easily kindle four litters per year. So you’re going to see rabbit breeders talking about new babies more frequently than other livestock breeders and inevitably some of those new babies will be culls, so breeders will be culling more frequently too.
Another difference? Many (but not all) large livestock breeders send their culls off to a meat processor. There aren’t many meat processors these days that will do small animals. Most rabbit breeders have to learn to do it themselves unless they can find a cull buyer. But many of the larger livestock can be loaded onto trailers and taken to the processor or even the sale barn. And while you will often see pig breeders selling their piglets to individuals, you need to remember they’re selling them to other people to raise up for their freezers. We are all butchering them, it can just look different to outsiders depending on the species and the options the breeder has available.
So no, rabbits don’t have more genetic defects than other livestock. And rabbit breeders aren’t killing more animals just cuz they’re murderous lunatics. It’s literally just the critter math. 🤷🏻♀️ If each cow popped out 10 calves 4 times per year, I promise you’d see just as many posts from cattle farmers talking about culling. You’d prolly also see a lot more cussing from them every time the cows got out. 😂
Edit to add since there seems to be some confusion: cull just means to select or remove from breeding. Once you eat it, you can no longer breed it. You have removed it from breeding. So all meat comes from cull animals cuz you chose not to breed it, or not to continue breeding it, for whatever reason. But not all culls are meat because you can remove an animal from your breeding program and make it a pet. It’s still a cull just by choosing not to add it to your breeding program. But before you ever decide to turn an animal into meat, you have to decide if you’re going to breed it and if the answer is no, you’ve culled it.
