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Report from the harrogate rabbit show

jay

Mama Doe
Saturday morning bright and early my friend Debs and and I set off to Harrogate to the Bradford Excel small animal show.

We saw lots of different rabbit breeds including some gorgeous dutch bunnies who compared to my Jack were really large, stocky bunnies! I always forget how little jack is!

Having never been to a show before I wasn't impressed at the way the breeders treat the rabbits - at least the breeders I talked to. One lady I talked to told me all about the rabbits she breeds and how when they reach 2 - 3 years old they end up in the freezer because they are too old to show!!

You can tell that the rabbits on show are not pets - the majority just didn't have that sparkle in their eyes that well looked after pet bunnies have. There was one particular dwarf lop who was adorable, playful and was doing his best to break out the little cage he was in - I nearly helped him along and into my bag!!

We did spend a lot of time sitting in the straw looking at the bunnies from Bunny Burrows Rescue and I met Gwen and John and even had a cuddle with a gorgeous white rescue bunny called Cindy. They had also brought along some feisty little cross lion head babies who were gorgeous!

When I got home I was very glad to be back with my bunnies who despite being a cross breed and a very small slightly scruffy dutch are so much more adorable than any of the bunnies at the show and in my eyes would have won all the show prizes easily. I told Jack and Milly how lucky they were but I don't think they were listening - Milly was to busy chewing the skirting board and Jack just came upstairs with me and flopped down in the middle of my bed and fell asleep.

Jane - I didn't take any photo's because I all the rabbits were kept in tiny wire cages for showing and none of them very happy about it.

I don't think I will be going to another show like that.
 
Interesting to hear your thoughts, I went to a guineapig show and felt the same - although there were many 'pet' guineapigs there that were obviously loved, there were many who were just for show.

And as for the freezer remark :shock: Did she mean she eats them? Surely not :?
 
I was going to go, but wheen I realised it was just one big rabbit show, I decided not to go.

What else was there to highlight rabbit health, care etc? :D
 
Must admit I went to the show in Reading a couple of years ago... I went with an open mind and was horrified :cry: Won't be going again.

I know there's members on here who show animals but I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

The best, sorry, the only good thing about the show was meeting the peeps from West Willows
 
I went to the show today and was dissapointed. there was very little there in the way of stalls to buy things. The buns were in there little cages. Some looked thoroughly fed up but then some were reall little giddy kippers and jumping around reaching up etc.

I couldnt resist given a few nose rubs. One giant was gorgeous and kept pushing her nose through for rubs. Saw some gorgeous lops who had decided to destroy all the bits of paper on there cages and kept coming for nose rubs too.

The auction was on while we were there but i ignored it . Over the sound system i heard one bun go for over £300 !!!

ill get my pics off my phone when i have a min.

caz
 
Don't think I'd like to go by the sounds of it, unless I had a big wheelbarrow to cart them all out! :lol:
 
I also went today, it was a last minute decission as I was not sure if it would upset me or not.

We looked at all the guinea pigs first who although in small cages mainly had lots of hay and veg to keep them happy. Some also had cardboard placed on top of the cages to calm them down.

There was also a small (very small!) amount of hamsters in those tiny plastic container you can but in pet shops (about 6 inch * 4 inchish). They were huge.

There were some stalls selling hutches and I thought that the prices for what I think were 4ft were not that bad. I steered clear of the breeder hutches I spotted.

There were a couple of stall with rabbit toys but prices were not cheaper than elsewhere.

There was a Wagg stall and Excel stall with really cheap food but the sacks had sold out (normal Excel would have been £8 for the 10Kg sack!).

Allen and Page were also there but i don't know the usual retail prices.

Bunny Burrows had a baby rabbit that was been hand reared that was the sweetest, tinest thing I had ever seen.

The bunnies were in tiny cages but it was nice to see that the ocasional breeder had incuded toy in the cage (there were a few cuddly toys in with them). It was hard not to fall in love.

The auction was also on when I was there and I found it quite upsetting that they were been sold to anyone and there winning potential used for the hard sell. One bun went for £35 and this was considered a really cheap (it was a gorgeous ginger dutch). I tried not to listen much.

There were a lot of clubs there for particular rabbits. But other than that very little else.

In general noone seemed to want to talk (apart from the stall holders giving the big sell and the hamster breeder who wanted to tell me all about his escaping hamster). But most disappointing was No freebies!

I thought the £7 entrance fee very expensive. It was packed so they must have made a huge amount of money.

Not sure if I would go again or not. If I did I would go early on the first day and take advantage of the cheap food.
 
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