AlisonA said:
Denny said:
if a potential new owner did not want to do this then maybe it would be better that they seek a bun else where.
To me this is a really important point. It just goes to show how important education and changing people's attitudes is. If you refuse people a rabbit (and I'm not saying you should go dishing them out willy-nilly) they will probably end up going to a breeder or a pet shop to get one. So not only is it adding to the problem, there is a fair chance that they may well end up not being advised, and getting just one, and a small hutch to keep it in.
well, how I see it is, a good breeder will give the right advise and will get a general understanding from the potential new owner as to whether they are a suitable canditate to have one of their bunnies :wink:
we have heard from some breeders on here who have refused to let a bunny go to an interested party
and I think this has been the same for some rescuers who have asked questions to potential new owners and decided that they would not rehome one to them :wink:
My understanding of animal welfare is that you put the animal first, if someone is not prepared to follow the advise from a rescue then they will not follow the advise from a petshop even if the petshop were up on rabbit education
dont get me wrong Alison, I certainly agree with you that education plays a big part in all of this but the biggest problem is buying on a whim
it is so easy to purchase any small animal from a petshop that some people just dont stop and think
now if the petshops were to give the right education and facts about rabbits, I bet the cost alone of neutering, vaccinations and potential yearly vet costs due to illness or teeth problems would deter anyone from purchasing a rabbit on a whim but it is highly unlikely a petshop would disclose such facts as their sales would probably drop dramatically and i dont think they would like that too much :wink: :lol: :lol:
hhhmmmm, being driven to purchase from a bad breeder, now that could swing two ways. I dont have much knowledge in this department but I would assume that there would be many forms of disabilities produced from interbreeding etc as a bad breeder does'nt really know the in's and out's of good genetics etc which would result in new owners constantly having problems or even a high rate of deaths which, would probably put any owner off for life or, could produce a lot of complaints from the new owners placed upon the bad breeder :? :? its a difficult one to judge really :?