Magicians / childrens' entertainers

Can anyone tell me where the Animal Welfare Act/RSPCA etc stand on rabbits (or other animals I guess) being used in magic acts?:?

The reason I ask is that I was at a work event on Friday where they had a childrens' entertainer in who had a rabbit 'appear' in a box (at least it wasn't a hat) as the finale of his show.
I tried to grill them a bit on the way the animal was housed/treated etc but they seemed to imply that keeping the bun in a small (bun-sized) box backstage during the show was fine for " a couple of hours - after all they live in burrows" :shock:

The bun did look healthy & quite relaxed, and was handled properly (no scruffing etc) but I felt very uncomfortable about this & would like to know where the law stands.

I saw this at a childrens show the other week. Whilst I'm not happy with it I went to the magician to ask about the bun. She is a free-range house bun, which was quite refreshing! She has a partner that came with her and they were away from the kids at all times until she came out of a box. She was whisked away back inside when the show was over so didn't have sticky fingers mauling her!!

I'm not happy with buns being used in magic shows, but he cared deeply for her and wasn't just using her for the magic! Of course it would be FAR better without any bunnies in magic shows!

Hmm - this guy let the kids stroke the bun - so of course they all mobbed her at once, which seems like a bad idea to me!

The guy did talk about having 2 others, and that they take it in turns to be in the show so I guess it's not too frequent. :? The eldest was apparently 7 years old, the one I saw was around 3.

It was such a noisy environment too, with flashing lights I felt in must be very stressful for a bun, and then to finally get out of the box to be mobbed by kids :shock: I wouldn't like it if I were a bun!