Rabbits as Biofuel in New Zealand?

Rabbits are a major pest in New Zealand where their highest densities are on the tussock grassland of the South Island. Breeding is a year round activity. A female rabbit can produce 25-40 young in a year, and they will become sexually mature at 3-4 months.

Rabbits compete with stock for grazing and will eat grass right down to ground level, seriously damaging the productivity of the pasture.

As in New Zealand, rabbits are not a native species in Sweden and there they are tackling the rabbit problem in a unique way--a Biomal project (with funding from EU). Once culled, the corpses are transported to a processing facility where the animal waste is crushed, ground and incinerated to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.

Leo Virta, the Managing Director of Konvex, the plant's suppliers, said-- "It is a good system as it solves the problem of dealing with the animal waste and it provides heat".

The question is --would such a project be viable or acceptable in New Zealand? There is an attitude that rabbits are cute, particularly among some animal rights activists, and I agree they are cute. On the other hand, burning them once they are dead (We do it to humans) is not as bad as infecting them with viruses such as RCD (rabbit calicivirus disease) as has been done in the past.