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Accidental breeding?

bunnyhuggger

Warren Veteran
Got a phone call from a lady yesterday. Her two rabbits had bred, resulting in a litter of 10 babies. She intends to keep the parents and 4 of the babies, and she wanted me to take the remaining 6. They are now 12 weeks old. We advised that she should at least be considering neutering one or both of the parents to ensure it didn't happen again, but although she said she realised this, I don't think that will happen. She will obviously have to sort out the babies too. I feel guilty that I refused to take in the babies, but I couldn't afford to. If I took them, I would have to pay £300 for neutering when the time comes, and in the meantime all the hutches would be filled until they were neutered (I don't rehome unless neutered), and therefore no hutches would be available for any emergency abused/neglected buns. I FEEL DREADFUL!!!!!
 
I think you made the responsible choice, its better to know your limits rather than take on more than you can handle and end up in difficulties. Of course knowing that probably doesn't make you feel much better for not taking them so *hugs* for you :)

Encouraging more people to neuter rabbits would help with accidental litters as well as the behaviour problems which people often give up bunnies because of. Of course even if you make people aware then they won't necessarily take the advice.

Neutering is quite expensive (possibly one of the factors in the womens decision to/not to neuter?). I wonder if any of the voucher schemes cover rabbits as well as cats and dogs?

Tam
 
hello

Hi Lynda
I think you did the right thing, a hard decision, but, it is important that rescues don't make it to easy for people to dump their rabbits with them, otherwise, people will become less responsible, and just get rabbits, thinking, 'Oh when we get bored we'll just send them off to rescue, those people love having lots of rabbits..!!!'

I board outdoor bunnies for people, and some bring in their overweight two year old female. When you talk to them about neutering companionship etc etc, cost soon comes into the conversation.....some are of course generally interested and some have come back to me neutered, changed diet, and boyfriend, but still, many aren't.

I think as the profile of the rabbit improves so will peoples willingness to pay the vet costs etc involved with their care. At the moment the 'Its just a Rabbit' stigma is doing little to help.

Raise the profile, bring the rabbit into more than just something in a hutch, get more people enjoying their rabbit more interactively, thus realising what an intelligent animal it is and what an important member of their family it is, then, like its canine and feline companions, veterinary treatment won't be questioned.

Annie :D
 
Oh Lynda what a situation, I can understand your reasons for not helping out.
Even the PDSA who help people who are unemployed don't cover things like neutering and what was put to me as 'preventative care' how on earth do they expect the unemployed to afford vaccines and neutering costs? Doesn't really help when there is so many problems with over run rescues for any animal.

Angela
 
I think that its terrible that cost should come between an animals qulity of life. if people decied to take on a pet they should consider vets bills ect before they get them.

I have a lovely 1 year old male cat who has poorly kidneys and at the moment has to go to the vets every month (at a cost of about £100 a visit) that i have to pay as im not elegable for pdsa help ( I work part time and am a student)
i was so upset to be told by people that i should just leave him and let nature take its course as the cost was to high even thou with treatment his condition can be controled. If you take on a pet you have to be prepered to have to pay large vets bills that may come with it. or as i have now learnt you should take out insurance.

you can have your rabbit neutered for about £40 this is not really a great deal of money and should be considered before hand.
 
Accidental Breeding

Hi Lucy, I agree with you. People should consider before taking on an animal, how they would cope with vet bills should that animal become sick. I will never understand peolpe who can have an animal and then refuse to treat it because of cost, or pts it and get another one. This happens all too often.
Sorry to hear about your cat, I hope he will be better with his treatment. Will he nead to be on treatment for the rest of his life?
 
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