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Why are rabbits not considered important animals?

LionheadLuver

Warren Veteran
I don't think that rabbits are considered as important animals by Joe Public. I don't think they realise quite how clever rabbits are and how much space and time they need. They don't even know what food they should give them (ie pelleted food and hay), or that they need lots of exercise. I don't think that rabbits are considered as very important, and people just buy them and stick them in a hutch for the whole of their lives and give them :censored: food. Why is it like this? Why can't rabbits be considered as important as dogs and cats, where nearly everyone knows what they require (ie walks, good food etc)? I know it's about education, but why aren't these people being educated? Why aren't there more laws to protect rabbits?
 
I totally agree with you hun but let's face it, there aren't exactly any laws to protect dogs and cats either. Bunnies are protected by the same animal laws as all other domesticated pets.

Unfortunately, rabbits are very, very easy to buy cheaply and dump in a tiny hutch at the end of the garden. And as we all know, that's where a huge percentage end up. The sort of people who forget about a rabbit at the bottom of the garden are the same ones who get a dog and then never take it for a walk. Unfortunately though, a rabbit will not complain loudly like a dog will so they're all too easy to forget. Even the 'educated' people still think that a rabbit should be kept in a hutch with a bowl of museli mix. I don't think they deliberately neglect their pets, they just don't realise that rabbits need so much more than that. However, I strongly believe that you should do plenty of research BEFORE you obtain a pet so perhaps I'm being a bit too kind to these people??

And as to what we can do about it........well I think it's a case of speaking up for bunnies at every available opportunity. I often nab people in P@H and tell them as much as I can get away with (without being asked to leave the store :lol:). Everyone at work knows me as the mad bunny lady (as well as the mad doggy lady and the mad piggie lady :roll:). Give it another couple of years and I'll be known as the mad OLD bunny lady :shock:.

You can't change people's perception of bunnies overnight but a drip-feed approach does get there in the end. It just takes time. Even places like P@H are gradually getting better. I know they're far from perfect (if only for the fact that they sell bunnies) but at least their hutches have got bigger over the years and they now put up posters that state rabbits should be kept in neutered pairs and need vaccinations etc. A few years ago, they'd have happily sold piggies and bunnies to live together so it is gradually changing.
 
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