Is it Legal to Raise Bunnies for Food?

This evening I was at work, answering calls as per usual, when one of our humane society clients received a call on their after-hours emergency line. Usually I hate getting calls for these guys because their on-call staff is incredibly unhelpful and rude, so I wasn't very excited to answer the line.But, you know, I'm paid to do it, so I sucked it up and picked up. The woman on the other end of the line was very, very nice. She introduced herself (let's call her Mallory) and I gauged her to be around my age, judging from the way she spoke and the timbre of her voice. She explained that she had a very odd situation she needed to talk to someone about and then prodded along by me started sharing her concerns. 

Mallory told me that her and her husband had brought in a rabbit to the SPCA that morning, but that when she got home they found another three or four in their backyard. She explained that she had new neighbours to the one side of her, and that they'd only been living next door a few months. Very politically correct, she described them as being of a 'different cultural background.' Mallory then went on to say that as weird as she knew it sounded, she believed that they were eating their bunnies. And I say bunnies because that was exactly how she referred to them throughout the conversation - never as rabbits, only as bunnies. Mallory then proceeded to tell me that there'd been a few times where her and her husband had smelled a strange smell coming from next door, and that it was like burning hair (which I thought was funny, cause, you know, hair? hare? tee hee). So, one day she peeked her head over the fence and saw in their backyard a large pen about four times the size of a garden shed and it was FILLED with bunnies. 

Naturally, I had no idea what to say at first. Our on call personnel is only for emergencies, and I told her as such, explaining that I didn't think they'd be able to help her as even though I would never kill and eat a bunny, I didn't think it was illegal to do so. She was so appalled, and it was totally cute, but it did make me wonder - IS it illegal to kill and eat rabbits in your backyard?

And nope, it isn't. You can totally raise meat rabbits, slaughter them, and consume them. In fact, there aren't really any rules or regulations about doing so. Also, judging from the posts on the internet, its more popular than I would have ever suspected. Unfortunately, my researches also illuminated me (as unwilling as I was to learn) what's involved in the slaughter of rabbits, and now I will never be able to 'un' learn that information. 

There are some interesting things I did read, though, which kinda make me think. This particular response to a reader's question impressed me. It is regarding small animal husbandry in big city areas, and though the site is from a Calgarian point of  view, I thought what was written was very thorough and educational. You can check that out here: http://www.greencalgary.org/ask-ashley/details/micro-livestock-in-the-city.

I also learned that rabbits are illegal in Queensland, Australia!! I had some fun skimming this: http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/documents/Biosecurity_EnvironmentalPests/IPA-Keeping-Rabbits-As-Pets-PA15.pdf, and really enjoyed that they put a scary red-eyed bunny in the picture!

And, because it is too cute not to post, a pic I found under Google images. You can thank me later!