We have giant rabbits come in 0.O *update*

[Azraelm]

They do look like a giant breed- we have some at the uni animal unit who weighed 7kg when they were not fully grown so I dread to think what they weigh now! They are such lovely gentle giants.

What kind of care will you be advising people?
It doesn't seem right for a pet shop to be selling giants, particularily with the chance of an impulse buy and people not quite understanding exactly how big they grow.

 

[Diddeen]

They have 3 newzealand white babies in my local pets at home. Hate to think what sort of hutch they will end up in :roll:

They didnt last long then.. i went in today to go to the vets and there were no rabbits at all.. just 2 guinea pigs :?

 

[maxxev]

i think it very unlikly that pets at home would have a regular breeder who would supply flemish or british to a petshop. (especialy considering the price you could charge for a pure breed conti privatly!)
im guessing that these were bought in from a member of the publib (quiet possibaly one who didn't know what breed they are either.... :evil: )

do pets at home sell hutches large enough for giants!? :? ............just hope for hell the staff were bright enough to tell the customers that these rabbits were giants and idealy (due to lack of avalibilty in regards to suitable hutches) should be kept as house rabbits.

 

[cute_fuzzies]

Yup, they look like New Zealand whites...I expect they would have been sent in by the suppliers. After Easter most of the rabbit suppliers are very low on bunnies (surprise surprise, stupid people thinking it's a great idea to buy bunnies for Easter :evil: )

So, to keep up with demand, if they can't produce cute bunnies, they source them from elsewhere. And the New Zealand white is always in plentiful supply.

 

[sola]

i think it very unlikly that pets at home would have a regular breeder who would supply flemish or british to a petshop. (especialy considering the price you could charge for a pure breed conti privatly!)
im guessing that these were bought in from a member of the publib (quiet possibaly one who didn't know what breed they are either.... :evil: )

do pets at home sell hutches large enough for giants!? :? ............just hope for **** the staff were bright enough to tell the customers that these rabbits were giants and idealy (due to lack of avalibilty in regards to suitable hutches) should be kept as house rabbits.

Nope, they were from our supplier probably surplus from other breeders from easter.
My assistant manager has agreed that we should advise them to be house rabbits as the only hutch I'd be ok to sell with them with the Thistle hall only.

 

[Inimical Me]

Oh my GOD they are enormous! I don't even think my Fidget is that big now and she's 9 months old :shock: judging by the size of the chair and hand comparison :shock: . How irresponsible of P@H. Someone is going to buy them without even being able to imagine how big they'll grow :shock: . Poor bunnies .

 

[sola]

Ok, so now the boy that's been put out is now up for rehoming, anyone who's interested puts money into the charity box, PAH recieves nothing for rehoming him.
I asked about the other two girls, but they're not sure if they'll be put up for rehoming too (I think they will).

So if anyone is looking for a male or (2) female New Zeland White baby bun come down to Huntingdon Pets at Home, you will not be supporting the trade.
The assistant manager even put what breed they are on the ticket, so fingers crossed no mistakes as to how big they'll get.

 

[KathyM]

If only I was nearer *lol*.

It's a shame that PAH don't lead the revolution into stopping the sale of live animals in petshops. Not one of their hutches is suitable for these rabbits The rabbits probably originate from mass breeders, much like their other animals - inbred and no health checks.

We went to our loca PAH the other day (Bradford) and I was disgusted by the lack of regard for the creatures in their shop - so much so I made a fuss as I left in front of other customers (God I love that my big gob can hurt PAH *lol*).

I know people don't see them as a priority, but every single tank in that shop had dead fish in. Their small animals are kept on wood shavings despite numerous letters from people more educated than them warning of the dangers of keeping animals on wood shavings.

I know this sounds odd, but its probably best if people here don't rush down to "rescue" these rabbits, all that does is tell the manager that it's easy to get shut of difficult to shift "stock". I would leave them there for now until a member of staff is forced to take them home, then step in and "rescue" if needed.

 

[sola]

Trust me... None of the staff there are rabbit peeps and the few that have any inkling of rabbit care have no space (myself included) my mum would kill me if I bought home a giant rabbit! ''' Where would I keep it??
Also I've already rescued a rat that 'bites' and mum threatened to charge them rent if I got any more. :lol:

I'd rather see it homed to a rabbit savvy home than someone who thinks a giant bunny would be perfect for the kids.

Our manager, I beleive, will be having words with our supplier, he doesn't want to sell giant rabbits. Our pet-person-thingy that overlooks the correct care of the east PAH's, I think told him to put him up for rehoming. She's pretty good and knows quite a bit about animals.

 

[cute_fuzzies]

Their small animals are kept on wood shavings despite numerous letters from people more educated than them warning of the dangers of keeping animals on wood shavings.

That's the point - they keep the animals on woodshavings because the Pet Care Trust advises it. It is not the fault of the pet shop. They are simply following guidelines from the supposed authority!

I think that PAH is actually one of the better pet shops in that they have started to actually ignore the PCT in some instances - the PCT say that rats are fine on woodshavings, rabbits should be kept alone and rabbits and guineas are fine together. I think it's commendable that PAH have actually changed their care guidelines against these sorts of things.

The Pet Care Trust are the organisation that runs the Pet Store Management courses and pet shop Animal Husbandry courses, so when staff have qualifications from the over-seeing Pet Care body which specifically state that woodhavings are fine, why on earth should they believe some random member of the public claiming that woodshavings are bad??

If you had studied for a qualification, and some random person who *hadn't* got that qualification started telling you it was wrong, I think you'd probably believe what you have specifically learnt rather than believing a customer. I mean, the PCT is supposed to be the authority. So of course pet shops are going to take their word over anybody elses.

I think I explained myself a little bit better on here:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=17601&start=90

Although I do believe that they actually have some pretty huge hutches in PAH - I went in there the other day and they had a couple of big double decker ones and great big 6ft one that looks like a coffin!!! :shock:

 

[raven_guest]

Ooooh they're gunna be bigguns! But how gorgeous!

 

[KathyM]

cute-fuzzies:

Thanks for your reply. However, it wasn't "some random member of the public" that sent letters and campaigned, it was several knowledgeable rat owners and breeders. PAH actually accepted their advice, but didn't implement it in all stores. It's been very hit and miss, obviously because PAH don't really have any regard for the animals as they see them as commodities (hence deliberately mis-sexing them to get more babies back, etc). They're just like any other petshop that sells animals - in it for the money with no care for the animals.

 

[Gem]

P@H always told me they don't do bigger breeds than Dwarf lops! How rediculous! That makes me cross as they'll have no idea what they are and what size they will get to!

Yeah.... and their definition of a dwarf lop is dodgy!

Thing is Dwarf doesn't always mean small, I've got several large DL's

 

[cute_fuzzies]

Thanks for your reply. However, it wasn't "some random member of the public" that sent letters and campaigned, it was several knowledgeable rat owners and breeders. PAH actually accepted their advice, but didn't implement it in all stores. It's been very hit and miss, obviously because PAH don't really have any regard for the animals as they see them as commodities (hence deliberately mis-sexing them to get more babies back, etc). They're just like any other petshop that sells animals - in it for the money with no care for the animals.

I wasn't saying that the people weren't knowledgeable - of course they must be, and I totally agree with the issues raised.

BUT in the eyes of the pet shop, how are they to know if these people are knowledgeable? I personally wouldn't see them as random member of the public - but somebody working in the pet shop probably would. Especially if they have an actual *qualification* that tells them something other than what the person is suggesting. So it's clearly in their best interests to follow the guidelines of the national Pet Care Authority...

The point i'm trying to make is that they have a whole national pet care organisation on one side saying one thing, then a relatively small number of people on the other side saying something else. So it's absolutely no surprise whatsoever that they have been listening to the Pet Care Trust all this time...why should they listen to the minority? Especially as the Pet Care Trust actually dishes out the pet shop management qualifications that actually teach staff all this advice.

BUT the other point I was trying to make is that they ARE actually listening to people and changing their policies...so why have a go at P@H (who are actually listening and changing their policies) when the Pet Care Trust are still giving out naff advice to ALL pet shops and giving out training materials to employees that defies all that we see as good husbandry?

 

[sola]

cute-fuzzies:

(hence deliberately mis-sexing them to get more babies back, etc).

:shock: I can assure you that my store doesn't do that :shock:
And I hope none of the others do either!
We try to sex them as best we can (or at least I can speak for myself.)

 

[KathyM]

We can hope as much as we like, but they do do it. Even when indirectly (eg. their untrained staff sexing them), they do do it. They regularly keep animals of opposite sex together.

cute_fuzzies - I see your point, but I'm not letting PAH off that easy. They have vets that work with them and they still can't get animal care right. The way I see it is they're worse than the smaller petshops that sell live animals. They're a big company, and they set a disgusting example to the rest of the industry and to new pet owners.

 

[Gem]

We can hope as much as we like, but they do do it. Even when indirectly (eg. their untrained staff sexing them), they do do it. They regularly keep animals of opposite sex together.

cute_fuzzies - I see your point, but I'm not letting PAH off that easy. They have vets that work with them and they still can't get animal care right. The way I see it is they're worse than the smaller petshops that sell live animals. They're a big company, and they set a disgusting example to the rest of the industry and to new pet owners.

Kathy, you're very right, but we mustn't forget that there are some, and only a few, knowledgeable staff there, Sola and Pink Princess Linzi (Ex PAH employee) are just two that we know of, both of them being on here.

I do see your points and I do agree, being involved with a small east hampshire rescue that recently had to deal with 24 buns as a result of PAH :x

The thing is and I think this has been mentioned before, that although they have vets on site, in most stores the vets are nothing to do with the actual company......I also find it hard to understand why when they have a vet on site the animals aren't sexed correctly :x :evil:

Yes I'm guilty of getting a bun from them, but it was three years ago and for six months she was a he, even the on site vets couldn't tell me for definate what she was.

Now the only reason I go in there is to check on the animals, which I have to be very careful about as I got banned from my local store for causing a disturbance and loosing them three potential bunny/piggie customers

 

[sola]

Well the boy has been rehomed, I think, and the two girls are up for sale and we have another white giant out back. *sighs*