Disgusted

[GD91]

Pets at Home in the UK needs seriously re - evaluating.
I had a call yesterday from a woman in tears who bought 2 rabbits & a hutch from them a month ago after being told by a member of staff that 2 standard pet rabbits were indeed suitable for children.
The outcome was she bought the 2 bunnies, the hutch, & small sacks of their most expensive feed, hay & shavings, feed dish & water bottle for the children.

A month on (the rabbits are 16 weeks by now) she's calling me in tears in response to an advert I had posted saying I was offering homes for older rabbits. She's working full time & the kids no longer want the rabbits because the rabbits don't want to play with them & she hasn't got the time etc etc....
So I said I would after making the point clear that rabbits are NOT generally suitable companions for small children since they don't like being picked up & cuddled & cannot offer the social companionship & play that most children want from their pets. I wasn't horrible, just explaining the truth of it because I get sooo many rabbits taken on from owners who make this mistake.

So she has travelled 20 miles to get to me, given me these two lovely 16 week old lops & the hutch for free etc & left.

The first thing I noticed was that 2 rabbits were a bit underweight. It soon became clear why. The food dish supplied to the lady from Pets at Home was a pretty pink plastic, but it was FAR to small for 2 rabbits to have food supplied once a day in. It was 2 cm deep by 5cm & she had been feeding both of them once a day. These are pretty large standard rabbits.
And then there was the hutch! Its 2 levels of 3ft x 1 ft with an open base so the rabbits could dig out very easily & the wire doors were tiny & very awkward, yet it cost £120! Who the hell would sell this contraption to person whom has chosen 2 rabbits for her children & obviously had no clue about their care at the time? Also the rabbits had been confined to this "hutch" with nothing to chew on except thin wood, so their teeth were overgrown.

Thanks to Pets at home I have not had to pay out any money at all for new rabbits so far. I just post an advertisement & the people are queuing up to dump their rabbits & supplies / equipment.
What I'm noticing is the equipment they are leaving with their rabbits here are usually completely unsuitable for the size of their pets or the number of pets they may have.
For people whom are inexperienced with rabbits & seeking help or assistance, that pet shop (from what I'm being told & seeing with my own eyes) is dolling out a lot of bad advice & selling unsuitable products with the pets. Pets at Home might be going under, but that is no good reason to be selling pets & products in any way possible without putting the animals welfare first!

The biggest complaints I'm getting from the owners have been:

The rabbit is / grew too big.

It doesn't like being picked up / cuddled.

Its scratching / kicking / biting / harming the kids.

Its too expensive.

They buy the expensive hutch & run, then realize the rabbits too big for it / unhappy & don't want / can't afford to to buy new equipment so they rehome instead. And that's where I fit in.

The rabbit is destructive / bored.

The rabbit had a litter & they are scared it will happen again.

The rabbit seems stressed constantly because it cannot deal with the noise & quick movements of the children & being grabbed at.



I think it really needs to get out there that rabbits are a prey species & are not suitable pets for young children. I feel so much pity for all the rabbits I've been taking in & adding to my stock (I breed mutts anyway) after their quarantine. Some of the rabbits have arrived traumatized from childrens rough handling (I've got another one now), underweight from misfeeding, weak muscles from lack of exercise, sores on their hind feet from unsuitable flooring & it all keeps leading back to the major pet store Pets At Home giving out misinformation or unsuitable products when they bought the rabbit/s. The owners are often ranting about what they were told or at least seem put out when they leave the rabbits here because the rabbits care & behavior became completely different to what they were told by the staff.

Its only rabbits from Pets at Home being donated to me, I don't seem get rabbits from other sources which makes me think maybe other pet shops & breeders are more honest about the rabbits care & requirements.

Do you think I should inform someone about my concerns or what?

I want to upload pics but my new phones not supported by my PC But the 2 new does are in a 6x4ft secure run now with shelter & a larger food dish. They were very hungry. Very cute to

 

[Baymule]

Bad for the poor rabbits and their new owners, but works out good for you. Maybe a call to a local TV station, if they have one of those consumer special reporters. They love this kind of stuff.

 

[GD91]

Not so good. Just had to cull both of them, one doe was sneezing, wheezing & coughing consistantly & I feared she was displaying early symptoms of snuffles so it was an immediate cull for them both. Posted a thread in the disease section. Might be heading towards my first disease outbreak lesson learned.
Got a doe, 14 kits & a buck to care for would be just my luck to have a pasturella outbreak.
Why do I never think of these things.....

 

[alsea1]

Quarantine all new arrivals. Will be a pain but allows you to bring on new animals without undue risk to existing stock.

 

[Hens and Roos]

I agree about quarantine, I heard to many stories about people not doing this and running into problems- happens not only with rabbits but chickens too.

 

[GD91]

Well I'm having problems. Woke up this morning with a runny nose & a bit of a cough. One of those rabbits scratched me yesterday. Pasturella is not contagious to people is it?

 

[happy acres]

I don't think so. You probably just caught a regular old cold.

 

[goatboy1973]

GD91,

I got this article from a nursing journal I subscribe to, very interesting.
Read this: Bacterial organisms from the Pasteurella species live in the mouths of most cats, as well as a significant number of dogs and other animals. If your child is bitten or scratched by an animal that carries Pasteurella organisms such as Pasteurella multocida, these bacteria can enter the body through the break in the skin. They most often cause a potentially serious infection of the skin called cellulitis. On occasion, these bacteria can be spread to humans from an animal’s saliva or nose mucus.

Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms of cellulitis usually begin after a very short incubation period, typically within 24 hours after your child has been bitten or scratched. He may develop swelling, redness, warmth, and tenderness of the skin, sometimes with discharge of pus. In some children, lymph nodes in the area of the infected skin may become enlarged and chills and fever can occur. Complications may be present in some children, including an infection of the joints (arthritis), bones (osteomyelitis), and tendons (tenosynovitis). Less frequently, youngsters may have pneumonia, urinary tract infections, meningitis, blood infections (septicemia), oreye infections.

 

[GD91]

Oh great well the cuts a bit red around it & my nose has been a bad all day with runny clear & colored snot (sorry TMI) & I've got a tickly cough. Been hot, but its a very warm, airless day here anyway. For the common cold, otherwise I'll have to see the vet, um, doctor.

Apart from that I've felt fine all the animals seem fine today to. I'll keep this thread updated for a bit I think.

Did it say anything about adults?

The woman I got the rabbits off of had children & I've got no way of warning her to keep an eye out.

 

[goatboy1973]

The same thing goes for adults. There's also a meningitis caused by this bacteria and a pneumonia also but both are very "uncommon" per the journal.