dextertherat
Young Bun
I visited my local Pets at Home (Skippers Lane, Middlesbrough) at the weekend and was quite shocked to see this. Am I over-reacting or is this not a suitable life for this poor bunny? The space is probably about 5x4ft and the door is open to the thin corridor between the other enclosures, maybe giving him another 1x3ft space. He's on his own, he cant see any other bunnies, and as you can see from the photos he has nothing to do, no toys, digging box or anything. He had a small amount of hay and a HUGE bowl of pellets.
I might be wrong but my main issue isn't really the space he has (although not ideal) it's his lack of interaction with either another bunny or humans, after all, its a shop, so its only open a maximum of 11 hours a day but he can't be getting much interaction during this time either, as the staff will be busy serving etc. Not only is it his lack of interaction, but also the lack of anything for him to do. Its like a solitary confinement prison for him. I obviously have a lot of other issues with his housing, but they are probably more minor things.
My question is, Is this wrong? Is there anything that can be done and where would I/we start? I dont feel I know enough about welfare to challenge them.
Surely this shows customers that this is a suitable permanent home/situation for a Giant rabbit as he is now a 'resident' and therefore most people would assume its fine for their pet rabbits (and most likely on a much smaller scale for an average size bunny).
I might be wrong but my main issue isn't really the space he has (although not ideal) it's his lack of interaction with either another bunny or humans, after all, its a shop, so its only open a maximum of 11 hours a day but he can't be getting much interaction during this time either, as the staff will be busy serving etc. Not only is it his lack of interaction, but also the lack of anything for him to do. Its like a solitary confinement prison for him. I obviously have a lot of other issues with his housing, but they are probably more minor things.
My question is, Is this wrong? Is there anything that can be done and where would I/we start? I dont feel I know enough about welfare to challenge them.
Surely this shows customers that this is a suitable permanent home/situation for a Giant rabbit as he is now a 'resident' and therefore most people would assume its fine for their pet rabbits (and most likely on a much smaller scale for an average size bunny).