Please focus on undersized hutches

[RWAF]

How is everyone doing with their New Year resolutions?! A few weeks ago we suggested some resolutions that could help improve rabbit welfare, and we'd love to hear if you have managed to do any of them. If not, it's not too late, how about starting off by finding a retailer on-line that you think is selling hutches that are too small for rabbits, and politely e-mailing them and telling them. Remember that a rabbit should be able to take 3 hops in its hutch and rear up fully (so that they do not develop painful spinal deformities) - for an average sized rabbit (remember of course they should be kept in pairs so this should be a minimum) this will be 6ft long and 2ft high.

Watch the link below. It will only take you a few minutes to send an e-mail, and could really help to make a difference.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewd5ASbHtf4&context=C3f24600ADOEgsToPDskJAAG8qORF0LuSWM0uaoqnO[/ame]

 

[kjm84]

When you say 6ft long, is this for a rabbit that doesn't leave their cage for several hours a day?

 

[RWAF]

We don't recommend that rabbits are ever confined solely to a cage or hutch, but that they should have a hutch of minimum 6ft x 2ft x 2ft dimensions with a permanently attached and secure run of minimum 8ft x 4ft so that they are able to exercise at will. Also that they should be neutered and share this accommodation with a neutered partner. The same area measurements apply for indoor rabbits as outdoor rabbits.

All recommendations are here http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/ahutchisnotenough.htm including the average area covered by wild rabbits in an average day. Males tend to cover more ground than females due, it's believed, to wild females spending time nearer to their offspring.

Given how far they range, to keep them confined to anything smaller than the recommended sizes -which are *minimum* sizes - is nothing short of cruel.

My own rabbits are largely houserabbits. They have free range of the downstairs of my house (all protected so they can't hurt themselves) while I'm at home and also while I'm at home,they have access to my secure garden. When I go out, they have the kitchen which is 12ft x 6ft plus the back lobby which is 6ft x 4ft. There's a hutch in the lobby that they can get into if they want to - door is never shut and they are never fastened into it - or get underneath it onto the cool ceramic tiles. It's raised approx 9 inches off the floor, and so jumping in and out isn't difficult for them.