Why are rabbits treated so badly?

[Khandro]

People put them in little hutches and ignore them for 99% of the time it seems. They give them food and water, but the poor creatures just sit there in all temperatures confined in a tiny space, if a similar fate was handed out to a cat or a dog there would be an outcry. Will someone tell me what it is all about please?

[Mosaic]

I agree with Khandro that many owners underestimate the stimulus needs a rabbit might have. I kept my accidental rabbits (a whole story there) in a chicken wire run on the back lawn, with their hutch inside.
They ate the grass through the chicken wire, could roam reasonably but were safe from predators. Mother and daughter lived their lives out as bunnily as could be managed, with occasional tunnelling break-outs.

[Mosaic]

And farmed rabbit that you buy as game has been reared as cruelly as a battery chicken, living all its life in a space about A4 in size. It's wrong.

[Khandro]

At wolf's suggestion above, I have just been out to look. It is 9pm here, the temp. is 1 cent. and I'm sad to report that the poor little devil is still sitting there, - no 'television' - no nothing. I must do something.

[carrust]

Top Tip. Never carry a rabbit by its ears...It'll only make them lazy :-)

[wildwood]

In general they are treated fairly, it is just some people who buy an animal on a whim without considering the responsibility that goes with it. The same goes for any pet, from a budgie to a pony.

The dog and cat syndrome is of course because there are so many kept as pets.

[wolf63]

I know nothing about rabbits but if they live in groups in the wild then they must be happier that way.

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/ Try this site and see if it can help you work out if they are looking after wee Bugs Bunny properly. "Pete the Vet" on facebook might be able to give you guidance too. I got the bunny welfare link from his Telegraph animal problem page.

Good luck.

Being nosey - what kind of dog do you have?

[Khandro]

Yes wolf, your link confirms the obvious, I too knew nothing about rabbits, but instinctively feel they are the most mistreated of 'pets'. The great, Robert Louis Stevenson once stopped a man from beating a dog, the man's riposte was " It's my dog!". RLS said "No, it is not your dog, it is God's dog". Whether you are religious or not, you must agree that it was an elegant answer? Further to your question; my dog is a black, rescued from 'death row', miniature poodle, from the South of France, his name is Piero.

[starone]

ummmm - don't they make your house smell funny? Just asking!

[wolf63]

Khandro - I am very, very unreligious but I still believe that "we are all god's creatures" covers all animals nicely. I am not, however, a vegetarian.

I hope that you get something sorted out for the rabbit - it must be mind numbing just sitting there all day. My cats have at least got each other to play with and intimidate.

I think that this wolf is away to turf a tom cat off her bed and get some sleep.

;-)

[vulcan]

I think rabbits are often bought for the wrong reasons, the children want a pet, the parents don't. To appease everybody they buy a pet that seems the least problem to look after. Children lose interest because the rabbit "does nothing" and nobody bothers with it except from giving it food and water.Tantamount to neglect and cruelty in my opinion.

[Mosaic]

Starbuck - re rabbit pongs, they instinctively use the same spot for a toilet - so a house rabbit can be trained to use a litter tray just like cats and dogs. What they can't be trained out of is the nibbling instinct - corners of my skirting boards still have nibble marks from decades ago.
Vulcan - very perceptive. A dear family friend bought her little girl a rabbit in similar circumstances - to keep in a hutch in her bedroom!! and had to have it explained to her that rabbits wee - she couldn't work out what the smell was. It showed to me a lack of perception that this is a mammal, not a tamagotchi toy.

[ummmm]

Star - they don't live in the house. They live in our outhouse/lean to. They do get in sometimes. I came in one day and one of them was asleep with the cat on the window sill.

I don't let them in because they crap everywhere and eat everything.

I leave the back door open so they can come in and out as they please.

[RATTER15]

I was actually thinking just last night about the way some goldfish are treated, thankfully we don't do this so often these days.

Remember the round glass goldfish bowls, with nothing in it but water and a goldfish? those poor fish would often live for many years in one of those things, what a dreadful life and so many people had them. Thankfully this doesn't happen so much now and I doubt you could even buy such a goldfish bowl.

[ummmm]

You can ratter. I used to have one. I only used it when their tank was being cleaned though.

[B00]

Ratter, sadly, you still can :-(

[RATTER15]

...and there was me thinking that these old goldfish bowls would only be found these days at car boot sales for people to keep weird plants in!

Dreadful things!!

[ummmm]

They are sold in pet shops.

[Prudie]

Those trendy Bio Orb fishtanks are just like that. I've not had rabbits but have had a hamster and won't have another because I think it's cruel. I never understand wht they are thought of as good pets for children because they're nocturnal for starters.

[chaptazbru]

FOR GODS SAKE KHANDRO RING THE RSPCA, NOW !!!!!

[pastafreak]

It's not necessary to shout....
And-I don't believe Khandro is in the UK-so it won't be the RSPCA
..also it sounds as if the rabbit is being ignored-rather than mis - treated....so calling a group such as the RSPCA won't do much good-not that they would come anyway.