Earless rabbits

[Starlight]

After a debate on another forum,

I thought i would ask the question over here.

Should an earless rabbit (due to overgrooming by the mother when it is a kit) be culled by breeders as " When breeding, you have to cut out the bad ones" ?

[honeybunny]

Well I know you have already seen my responses on the other forum Kris

No it should not.
The argument being put forward is that it will weaken the breed, but a bun that has lost its ears due to over grooming is not a weak bun, it is not a genetic fault and could quite easily be found a home.

Would be interesting if people could answer with a simple yes or no! (Kris will get this point!)

[UsagiYojimbo]

I know of a bunny who had her ears chewed off at birth from mother and she has grown up fine absolutely normal can still hear and is very happy.

There is absolutely no need to cull them at birth that is ridiculous

[Starlight]

And also the point that someone made being that culling these imperfect rabbits is doing the rescue a favour as they are more likely to end up in a rescue long term

[Bunny Buddy]

No dilemma at all on this one. It sounds like it's all about cosmetics and convenience - not about what's good for either the breed or the individual bunny.

I think most of us *here* would be proud to own an earless bunny as it would represent a life that wasn't destroyed for the sake of it.

[holidayhutch]

Meet Rosie a gorgeous little earless tri coloured Dutch whose ears were chewed off at birth. She has been coming here on her holidays now for over 2 years and is gorgeous, she is no different to any other rabbit apart from her ears and this doesn't seem to impede her in any way so my answer is a definite NO. She also came from a rescue(where she was born) and her owner picked her because she was different to all the other buns.

[Bunny Buddy]

And also the point that someone made being that culling these imperfect rabbits is doing the rescue a favour as they are more likely to end up in a rescue long term

I actually doubt that as the compassionate people who go to rescues are likely to notice that bunny over the others (I've no experience of running a rescue of cause, that's just my gut feeling).

[Hugo's There]

I have some lovely earless buns

I can vaguely see the point about them ending up in rescues as I guess they are harder to rehome and my earless boys came from a rescue. But I'm sure the majority of rescues would prefer to find space for them than know they are being culled at birth.

So my answer is no

[giantbunnymummy]

Definitely a no from me too.

I'd be surprised if anyone on RU voted yes tbh ... but you never know!

[Hugo's There]

Didn't take me many seconds to find the original arguement