Rabbits: the most neglected pet in Britain?

[nessar]

Yes, but through ignorance not cruelty.

 

[Rosie42]

I think that there are quite a few contenders for this actually. Rabbits are definitely up there, as they are cheap to come by, and are bought for children who quickly get bored. Also fish, as others have mentioned, because people don't even see them as living beings half the time; they just buy them as a decoration for the room :roll: Also small furries like hamsters/ gerbils because people don't think that they are worth spending money on, and horses, because they are just abandoned in fields and forgotten about, as they are deemed to 'too expensive'.

I would also argue that any animal that is currently 'fashionable' is in grave danger of being heavily neglected, so for me at the moment, I would argue that chickens are also up there with the other animals. People buy eggs to hatch or tiny chicks because they are cute, and don't allow for the amount of roosters that will hatch. These are either given away for free on freeads (where they can be used for anything from **** fighting to dog bait), have their necks snapped by people who have no idea what they are doing (so I imagine that it is pretty brutal and painful) or are just dumped. Hens don't get a much better life as many are gotten rid of as soon as they stop laying, or are again dispatched. People don't know how to look after them so they get ill and won't take them to the vet, because after all they are 'just' chickens :roll::evil:

The other night, on an ex-battery hen rescue group I am a member of, a man was casually talking about how he came home to find that his dog was 'playing with the chickens'. The dog had severely wounded one of his hens, who had bits of skin and muscle hanging off her. He was asking for advise on what to do next as he had already 'glued her back together' and wasn't sure what he should do now :evil: No pain relief, no cleaning or flushing out the wounds and no knowledge of what he was doing. He just took it upon himself to grab bits of skin and superglue them back together. When he was asked why he did not bring her to the vet he said that there were 'none open'. It was Good Friday. There were vets open but they were emergency vets and he didn't want to spend that money on her. I ask the question, as I did to him (and got no response) would you have done the same thing if it was a cat or dog in that situation? No, I think not. So why should any other animal be different?! It doesn't matter what your pet is, you have a duty of care to it and it should go to the vets if need be (even to just be PTS if you can't afford very expensive treatment).

 

[William]

I would also say that fish, especially goldfish, are the most neglected. Many people barely even view them as animals, they're seen as more like decoration, and people don't even know the most basic care of them.

I think that there are quite a few contenders for this actually. Rabbits are definitely up there, as they are cheap to come by, and are bought for children who quickly get bored. Also fish, as others have mentioned, because people don't even see them as living beings half the time; they just buy them as a decoration for the room :roll: Also small furries like hamsters/ gerbils because people don't think that they are worth spending money on, and horses, because they are just abandoned in fields and forgotten about, as they are deemed to 'too expensive'.

I would also argue that any animal that is currently 'fashionable' is in grave danger of being heavily neglected, so for me at the moment, I would argue that chickens are also up there with the other animals. People buy eggs to hatch or tiny chicks because they are cute, and don't allow for the amount of roosters that will hatch. These are either given away for free on freeads (where they can be used for anything from **** fighting to dog bait), have their necks snapped by people who have no idea what they are doing (so I imagine that it is pretty brutal and painful) or are just dumped. Hens don't get a much better life as many are gotten rid of as soon as they stop laying, or are again dispatched. People don't know how to look after them so they get ill and won't take them to the vet, because after all they are 'just' chickens :roll::evil:

The other night, on an ex-battery hen rescue group I am a member of, a man was casually talking about how he came home to find that his dog was 'playing with the chickens'. The dog had severely wounded one of his hens, who had bits of skin and muscle hanging off her. He was asking for advise on what to do next as he had already 'glued her back together' and wasn't sure what he should do now :evil: No pain relief, no cleaning or flushing out the wounds and no knowledge of what he was doing. He just took it upon himself to grab bits of skin and superglue them back together. When he was asked why he did not bring her to the vet he said that there were 'none open'. It was Good Friday. There were vets open but they were emergency vets and he didn't want to spend that money on her. I ask the question, as I did to him (and got no response) would you have done the same thing if it was a cat or dog in that situation? No, I think not. So why should any other animal be different?! It doesn't matter what your pet is, you have a duty of care to it and it should go to the vets if need be (even to just be PTS if you can't afford very expensive treatment).

That's horrifying :shock: Why on earth would you ever use superglue?! I've never even heard of such a thing. Poor hen Even if he couldn't get to the vet right then, there's plenty he still could have done (clean the wounds, get antibiotics from feed store, keep her comfortable etc). There's no excuse for being so stupid when you have the internet and a phone to gain a bit of knowledge.

 

[belgian2]

I think any animal bought as a traditional childs pet gets a raw deal-all the small squeakers suffer.

closely followed by exotics bought by clueless idiots who aren't prepared for the expense of properly careing for them.(and i really think laws need updating on exotics as the suffering is terrible)

horses get it bad BUT at least horses are usually visible from some footpath-you can't hide a horse in a hutch and forget about it as easy as rabbits, snakes etc

 

[William]

I think any animal bought as a traditional childs pet gets a raw deal-all the small squeakers suffer.

closely followed by exotics bought by clueless idiots who aren't prepared for the expense of properly careing for them.(and i really think laws need updating on exotics as the suffering is terrible)

horses get it bad BUT at least horses are usually visible from some footpath-you can't hide a horse in a hutch and forget about it as easy as rabbits, snakes etc

Depends on what you mean by exotic... If you mean reptiles, yes that's unfortunately true, but if you mean exotic mammals then that isn't true at all. It's well known that exotic mammals are some of the best cared for pets and that exotic keepers are usually very dedicated.

 

[Confused_bun]

I think any animal bought as a traditional childs pet gets a raw deal-all the small squeakers suffer.

closely followed by exotics bought by clueless idiots who aren't prepared for the expense of properly careing for them.(and i really think laws need updating on exotics as the suffering is terrible)

horses get it bad BUT at least horses are usually visible from some footpath-you can't hide a horse in a hutch and forget about it as easy as rabbits, snakes etc

It doesnt matter that the public can often see them. You'd be amazed how many horses are left for days, weeks, even months between "visits" from the owner and how long a horse has to be completely left for before the public notice - its very common for the pulic to only notice once the horses feet are that long they curve up and back round and the animal can barely walk (that could be 2whole years of growth), again the public dont tend to notice a horse starving to death until its literally skin and bone. The public generally cant see into their waterbucket - to see whether they even have water or whether its clean enough for comsumption (horses that are abandonded often have a very large water source (i.e. an old bath filled up), but this is so easily contaminated and still relies on the rain to keep filling it up (bear in mind also that in the summer my large pony can drink 40-60litres a day by himself, a horse can drink more)).

Also it can be extremely difficult to trace the owner of a horse (fields are often let cash in hand and can be sub-let multiple times). The micro-chipping and passporting of horses has helped a little but there are lots of people out there who dont get their foals microchipped or passported despite the fact its now law, and there are still thousands of older horses who dont have a microchip because its never been a legal requirement for them and even if a horse is microchipped then bad owners often dont update their details onto the passport or microchip.