West Midlands charity urging for tougher breeding laws on pet rabbits
The UK is currently experiencing the worst rabbit rescue crisis in years
A West Midlands animal charity is pushing for tougher rabbit breeding laws as the situation reaches crisis in the region and across the UK.
The UK is currently experiencing the worst rabbit rescue crisis ever, following alarming reports that up to 100,000 rabbits now end up in UK rescues each year.
The Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund (RWAF) is calling on the government to strengthen rabbit breeding laws, following alarming reports.
Despite their popularity as pets, the current rabbit rescue crisis is leaving shelters overwhelmed and struggling to cope with the growing number of neglected, mistreated, and surrendered rabbits.
We've been speaking with Grace Fouler from Rabbit Rescue charity, Fat Fluffs, in Hampton-in-Arden on the overwhelming amount of rescues they have carried out this year.
Grace said: "Well currently Rabbit rescues across the country are in crisis.
"So as bad as it is in the Midlands, it seems to be so widespread, there's up to 100,000 rabbits ending up in rescues every single year.
"We're finding that there's more rabbits being surrendered and abandoned than there are spaces available in rescue centres.
"We're managing and we're doing our best, but the waiting list just seems to fill every time you get a few more rabbits in and it seems like a never ending battle to try and get on top of it."
Rae Walters is the CEO of RAWF: “Rabbits are as intelligent as dogs yet are not covered by the same level of breeder licensing protection.
"Our data suggests that many active rabbit breeders are not answerable to the current regulations, which raises concerns about welfare.
"These unregulated breeders are not subject to local authority inspections or required to meet any welfare standards at all (save for those in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which are not being inspected or enforced) and, unfortunately, the conditions in which breeding rabbits are kept are often very poor.
“If the law was amended as we propose, we believe that more rabbit breeders would need to be licensed, welfare standards would be raised and fewer rabbits would be bred.
"Hopefully fewer rabbits would be given up by their owners which would ease the pressure on the rescue centres and mean fewer rabbits are abandoned.
“The current loophole in licencing is contributing to a welfare crisis for rabbits which is only getting worse.
"We would always encourage people to do their research properly and then go along to an adoption centre. There are too many healthy rabbits already waiting to be adopted in the UK and no reason to breed more baby rabbits."