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26/05/2011 - Is Your Bunny a Happy Bunny?
Senior veterinary surgeon at RSPCA Bristol Branch Clinic, Damian Pacini, along with his dedicated colleagues, is so passionate about improving the standard of life for pet rabbits that he will be dressed as a rabbit and spending Friday 27th May shut in a human sized rabbit hutch at Avonmead Retail Park in St. Philips Causeway, to illustrate the plight of the forgotten bunny!
This week is Rabbit Awareness Week (RAW) and the RAW campaign this year is focusing on rabbit’s emotional wellbeing and behavioural needs. Rabbits are the third most popular pet in this country but sadly the needs of rabbits are often poorly understood, having a negative impact on rabbit welfare.
Damian Pacini, Senior Veterinary Officer at the RSPCA Bristol Clinic said, “Rabbit Awareness Week is a very important annual campaign and we wanted to be part of the national activity by educating local owners on responsible rabbit ownership. Rabbits are very intelligent creatures and need to be kept mentally stimulated, busy and exercised in order to be emotionally healthy and happy. All too often they are confined to small hutches and not provided with the enrichment they crave.”
“Rabbits are not designed to live in a confined space. In the wild they can cover an area equivalent to 30 football pitches. They're also very sociable creatures with wild rabbits living in large groups, foraging, grooming each other and huddling together for warmth. Domestic rabbits are not fundamentally any different from their wild cousins, sharing the same need to run, jump, explore and share companionship with their own kind. Their accommodation and environment must therefore allow them to display these natural behaviours.”
“We look forward to welcoming rabbit owners to our human sized hutch where they can learn more about rabbit welfare from RSPCA Clinic vets and nurses while supporting this year’s RAW.”
RSPCA Bristol Branch hope that the public will visit their attraction to learn more about the behaviour needs of their rabbits and help to make Bristol bunnies, happy bunnies! For those that come along there will be a limited supply of free bunny goodie bags containing information, vouchers and rabbit toys (kindly donated by Pedigree Wholesale Ltd) to give away!
Matt Bush, TV vet and RAW supporter said, “This May, the focus is on raising awareness of rabbits’ emotional health. Unhappy rabbits that are bored, frustrated or frightened tend to develop behavioural problems, such as stereotypic behaviour (highly repetitive, unvarying, apparently purposeless activities), depression, frequent hiding, decreased grooming or aggression.”
“This can be due to a number of husbandry and housing issues such as lack of mental stimulation, lack of appropriate company, lack of room to exercise, and even the wrong diet. With the support of the veterinary community and the pet retail sector, our primary aim is to educate owners in responsible rabbit ownership and improve the wellbeing of Britain’s third most popular pet.”
RAW is organised by Burgess Pet Care and this year the RSPCA is one of the official supporting partners. The other official partners of RAW include the PDSA, the Blue Cross, Wood Green Animal Shelters, Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund (RWAF), Burgess Excel, Panacur Rabbit and Petplan Insurance.
For more information please visit the National RSPCA Website.
