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Cannon Hall Farm - again :o(

paulinejoe

Mama Doe
i can't find it but I did a post, probably last summer/autumn, about how disgusting i thought the rabbit facilities were at Cannon Hall farm nr Barnsley, and that I'd emailed the owner and not had a very good response, so with the helps of everbunny on here I put together a really good response, however, i didn't unsurprisingly get a reply (I'll put the letter I sent at the bottom of this post so it's not in the way)

So, 2 weekends ago we went back there, and I was hoping got good things in the bunny barns, but no, they are just as bad as ever :(

One enclosure did have a wooden hidey hole box, but there was:

Still no hay at all in 99% of them, and no sign of there having been any either (I took hay from the one enclosure that did have some and shared it round the others and they nommed it like no tomorrow)

Water was still in bowls that were full of wood shavings

Still no dividers between enclosures hence the constant supply of babies

Still mixed in with Guinea Pigs

Still selling bunnies

they just all looked so sad an miserable.

I took some pictures with my phone (Paul called me an animal rights activist :roll::lol:): There's a few so here's a link to the album on photobucket: (the glass enclosures in a couple of the pictures contain chinchillas)

http://s1013.photobucket.com/albums/af257/paulinekk/

I don't know what to do next really??

_____________________________________________________________

I don't appear to have saved the final version of the letter i sent, i must have pressed print then closed it by mistale, but here is the previously saved copy so i did incorporate the suggested changes but this is pretty much what went off to them:

Dear Robert

Thank you for your reply to my previous letter which outlined my concerns over the welfare of your rabbits at Cannon Hall.

I am pleased to hear that you have taken on board some of my comments particularly with regard to the type of food available and the accommodation for when you next upgrade your facilities; however I would like to further clarify a few areas from some of the points you made.

First, you state that you believe that the ready reproduction of your rabbits is a good indicator of their health and happiness. I do not agree that this is the case; indeed the reason that rabbits are such prolific breeders is because their life expectancy in the wild is so limited. It is purely a factor of species and not related to their happiness and welfare.

I am pleased to hear you say that you are passionate about animal welfare and I would therefore ask that you consider introducing a neutering programme for your existing rabbits. There are many reasons for not allowing your rabbits to breed – and indeed where rabbits can jump barriers and ‘choose’ partners this is even more important. For instance:

• by allowing breeding between animals of unknown histories and ‘matches’ to occur you could be unwittingly breeding poor genetic traits such as dental problems.

• At present, the unstructured breeding is not necessarily allowing sufficient time for the females to recover between litters and could lead to a large male mating with a small female, causing her distress during birth. With your passion for animal welfare I am sure you would agree that neither of these circumstances are acceptable.

• Over 33,000 rabbits are bought into rescue centres every year, and every rabbit bred and sold from your farm is denying one of these rescue rabbits a home, and unless you carry out home-checks on all potential purchasers of your rabbits and educate them on the many needs of their new pet they could well end up in a rescue themselves.

• Up to 85% of un-neutered female rabbits contract uterine cancer by the age of 4

I am relieved to hear that you have never had an injury when mixing rabbits and guinea pigs, however I still remain concerned about this practice. It is not recommended (RSPCA, RWA to name but two welfare organisations) and by doing so yourselves, it is not demonstrating responsible ownership to visitors, whose own animals may not be so lucky.

If I may also be so bold as to suggest that if you raise the height of barriers to prevent rabbits jumping between pens, it would also resolve the problem of space being at a premium as it would also reduce the number of pregnancies. Even the most placid, small rabbits can jump knee-high pens with ease. Rabbits have extremely strong rear leg muscles – hence there also being the possibility of them delivering a crippling blow to a guinea pig.

I am also concerned at your statement that “none of our rabbits are petted against their will”. I’m not quite sure how you can be so categorical about this, because your rabbits do not have any shelters to run and hide in, and as I mentioned in my previous letter they are prey animals and being approached by above is very frightening for them. I have seen children tugging at their ears etc and the rabbit has no choice but to put up with it as there is no means of escape.

I am pleased to hear that your rabbits are given ad lib hay every day, however when we visited there was no hay whatsoever. Each rabbit needs to eat it’s own size in hay per day as a minimum requirement not only for their digestive health but to keep their permanently growing teeth short. May I respectfully suggest that you provide hay on a more regular basis throughout the day so that it is always available and never runs out.

I also note that you did not respond to the issue about the rabbits having no water. I hope this is because you agree that it is a fundamental issue and have taken steps to ensure that all rabbits always have fresh water available, for instance by introducing additional water bottles.

As I mentioned earlier, I am pleased to hear that you will take my comments into account when you upgrade your rabbit facilities, and I hope that this takes place very soon. In the meantime I would respectfully suggest that a few simple changes could significantly improve the quality of life and welfare of the rabbits (and indeed guinea pigs) on your premises. Most notably a new food/water routine to ensure that hay and water are always available, the provision of shelters in the runs so that the animals have somewhere private to retreat to if they so wish, and raising the height of barriers between runs to prevent rabbits from indiscriminately breeding and/or fighting.

Before you carry out any work I would also recommend you get in touch with the Rabbit Welfare Association, they are an absolute goldmine of brilliant advice on all rabbit matters and will be able to point you in the right direction on a range of matters such as suitable housing, health and dietary requirements. Their website is www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk.

As a farm you carry the responsibility of educating young people and their parents on the necessary care required for all of your animal residents. At present your rabbit facilities are sending out the completely wrong message and I can see why you would consider Cannon hall farm a good place for rabbits to live compared to the traditional 3ft hutch at the bottom of the garden, but looking at the changing attitudes to rabbits and their needs I would disagree. With a few inexpensive and simple changes you could set a brilliant example and give your rabbits a better quality of life.

Why not work alongside a rabbit welfare charity/rescue and make it a selling point of your farm? Make it a really big deal how well you care for your rabbits! And instead of breeding them for sale, get them all neutered then push the services of your local rabbit rescue centre for anyone who expresses an interest in owning rabbits, you could also be a member of the “Make mine chocolate” campaign, the goal of which is to break the cycle of acquisition and relinquishment by educating the public about the responsibilities involved in keeping a companion rabbit before a rabbit is brought home. Their website is www.makeminechocolate.org/. I am concerned that a lot of the rabbits sold at your farm will be impulse buys and something fluffy to take home after an enjoyable day out at the farm, with no thought to the ongoing needs and welfare of the rabbits, and this saddens me.

On all other levels Cannon Hall Farm is an amazing place, and you do obviously care for your other animals, it’s just the rabbits and guinea pigs that are letting you down and I urge you to re-think your husbandry in this area to demonstrate that you really are passionate about all your animals! I look forward to visiting again and hopefully seeing your beautiful rabbits in their updated surroundings.
 
Have you contacted the council?


No - while i know what they are doing is not right, are they actually breaking any council regulations? I don't know enough about this kind of thing really. What department at the council would cover things like this?
 
No - while i know what they are doing is not right, are they actually breaking any council regulations? I don't know enough about this kind of thing really. What department at the council would cover things like this?

I would guess they were, as i would assume it was similar to the pet shop license terms, which state the animal must be kept in an environment suitable for that particular animal.

A rabbits ideal environment and a guines is without being in the same pen/cage/area as the other.
 
Not having any hay would almost certainly be a breach of animal welfare.

My council has an animal welfare page, try googing your council name and animal welfare
 
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