Rabbits the most neglected pets in the UK ?

I read this several years ago in an animal welfare magazine. Forget which one.

Main reason: bought as a pet for a child, put in a hutch at the bottom of a garden. Often without water or food for a day or two because they don't want to go out in the cold weather.

It didn't say but would assume without a partner. Sadly we know the rest.

I think this is mostly likely to be true, as other pets such as hampsters and gerbils are kept indoors. Not that that stops neglect.

I suppose it is true but I would be surprised if cats aren't a close second.
I also wonder how many small rodents get forgotten about in a corner of a room and are left to die but it isn't documented because nobody will ever know.

I'd say they are.
I think petshops play a big part in it too, rather than some of the people being purposfully cruel

Yes - and it is probably still true in a lot of cases ( obviously not ours on here!) but it amazes me that people still think it is OK to keep rabbits confined to a tiny hutch that is outside all the time - and not cleaned out regularly either. It doesn't help that major pet stores still sell bunnies with little hutches and don't check whether the rabbit is going to be alone.

halfpenny said:

I suppose it is true but I would be surprised if cats aren't a close second.
I also wonder how many small rodents get forgotten about in a corner of a room and are left to die but it isn't documented because nobody will ever know.

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Its awful to think about a poor little animal forgotten about.

Just read your post about the cat you are getting. Poor little lady. Very very sad.

Found this

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100036419/rabbits-britains-most-neglected-pets/

My brother told me about his friend who had a hamster cage on his wardrobe, and he just forgot about it.

How can you "forget" you had a hamster in your room

Poor thing obviously died, and was only remembered when the odour set in :evil:

Starlight said:

My brother told me about his friend who had a hamster cage on his wardrobe, and he just forgot about it.

How can you "forget" you had a hamster in your room

Poor thing obviously died, and was only remembered when the odour set in :evil:

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OMG that's heartbreaking :shock:

Tuckerbunnies said:

Found this

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100036419/rabbits-britains-most-neglected-pets/

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Very sad. Similar article to what I read without the statistics.

The comments to the article at the bottom just show how uninterested people can be and how they have trailed off the subject.

Aren't there already statistics that show its true?

Starlight said:

My brother told me about his friend who had a hamster cage on his wardrobe, and he just forgot about it.

How can you "forget" you had a hamster in your room

Poor thing obviously died, and was only remembered when the odour set in :evil:

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That is truely awful. I hope your brother is not friends with him anymore.

Animals are not toys to be disguarded when bored. I really wish there was tighter pet ownership regulations.

I sometimes think that some people don't realise that an animal isn't just for our pleasure, when WE want. A pet animal is TOTALLY dependant on us for every aspect of it's life.
For me the pleasure comes from giving them the best life I can.
I'm always amazed by how much they give back to me; always way, way above my hopes!

Yes, there are stats somewhere that say rabbits are the third most popular pet in the UK and the first most commonly neglected

I can absolutely see how that's fact though.

I believe that's true, it's so easy to buy one from a petshop and leave the poor thing in a hutch at the bottom of the garden

Starlight said:

My brother told me about his friend who had a hamster cage on his wardrobe, and he just forgot about it.

How can you "forget" you had a hamster in your room

Poor thing obviously died, and was only remembered when the odour set in :evil:

Click to expand...

This is so sad, but i do believe its true sadly,
i blame lack of knowledge, i've had rabbits all my life but am ashamed to say did'nt really know a lot untill i found R/U.
all rabbits should be sold with a link to this site!!!!

The thing is people just dont know any better. And of course them being childrens pets doesnt help either.

Take one of my childhood rabbits, Snowey. This was after my mum had stopped breeding (yes I know :roll and she was mine and my sisters pet rabbit. I remember when I was 12 I forgot to feed her for a weekend and she had run out of water, I felt terrible and I always made sure to check again, but plenty of children would forget more often. When I went away on holiday my sister fed her only once and she ate almost all her hay and straw We often didnt clean her out for like 10 days at a time but saw nothing wrong with that. The fact is children should not be left with sole responsibility for a pet.

I fed her a bowl of rabbit mix every day and in winter a bowl of porridge made with water too, sometimes she had straw instead of hay as we thought she just LIKED to eat it as a snack, because rabbits eat rabbit food obviously. I fed her carrots and lettuce for treats. And the only time I spent with her would be with me sitting outside the hutch talking to her but I never handled her as she would attack you the moment you put your hands in. I thought she hated me, but now I know she was just showing typical unspayed behaviour, she was hormonal and had constant phantom pregnancies. She had friends, but we split them up after we stopped breeding and just kept her. She had an attached run to her 4ft hutch (which we thought was HUGE) but she wouldnt go down the ramp, so she only got exercise when she free-ranged once a month or less.

It makes me so sad to think back to how horrible her life was, but it is pretty standard for a lot of rabbits. Now imagine the reaction if I came on here treating my rabbit like that, imagine the outrage and flaming. I honestly loved Snowey and if I had known the right information I would have changed her life for the better. But noone told me, and I believed everything the pet shop said I should do. The thing is, I thought what I was doing was right, yet looking back I did neglect her.

My current rabbit will be getting a friend soon, he free-ranges in my room all day and has 20sqft at night. He has the correct diet, is vaccinated and neutered and I spend loads of time with him. I am the same person, just armed with better knowledge.

Thank you nessar. Thank you for so much courage & being honest.
You have helped me to understand the problem better, & hopefully I can now take better action to help others & help bunnies.

We can't sit on our high horses, we HAVE to understand more clearly where the problem is before we can be helpful.

You've hit the nail on the head Nessar, the way to change animals lives is through education and although infomation isn't hard to find these days, unless people are aware there is a problem they don't bother to look.
I am horrifed at the tiny cages that are sold for small rodents, rats and parrots. It would be interesting to see how the determined the most neglected pet.

I guess with rabbits a lot of traditional care came from them being kept for meat and in that situation space was not an economical benefit, add kiddies left to look after one and it is a disaster waiting to happen.

Tuckerbunnies said:

Found this

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100036419/rabbits-britains-most-neglected-pets/

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How sad, and with easter coming up there will be many more miss treated buns i expect ....