I agree, everyone is entitled to their ownopinions, thats what makes RO such a wonderful community to be a partof. We are such a diverse group with different interests and opinionsand thats OK
I also think there has been a lot of information floating around and ithas been difficult to sort out the truth. I wanted to post an email Ireceived with a statement from well-respected Susan Brown, DVM, whichdoes help give us a clear idea of the situation. I left out a fewparagraphs at the end bc it was so long.
STATEMENT POSTED ON BEHALF OF DR. SUSAN A. BROWN, DVM
After being intimately involved with the care of the rabbits in theWatseka Rabbit confiscation case ordered by the Illinois Department ofAgriculture and implemented by the South Suburban Humane Society (SSHS)I would like to correct a lot of rampant, misleading and inflammatoryrumors that are running around about the rabbits in question. I havejust finished testifying at the hearing and I would like to make thefollowing statements.
I cannot speak for all the conditions at the breeder's facility becauseI did not see it, only pictures. The bottom line there, is that it didneed to have adequate ventilation and feces and urine needed to becleaned. There were pictures of large piles of stool on the ground andthere was ammonia from the breakdown of urine in the air. There was noelectricity in the building so the fans were not running. There wereclearly serious sanitation issues and ventilation issues withdiseaseoutbreaks as the consequence as the main concerns.
I do not believe that this was a "rabbit mill" strictly for the purposeof breeding rabbits for sale to pet stores. The animals examined wereof high quality and many were show quality. He did not have multiplerabbits that were pregnant at the time of seizure which would haveindicated he was only in it for mass production of rabbits. I think itis wrong to use this label. Judging from the quality of all his animalshe was not in it just to produce as many rabbits as possible. He wasproducing high quality rabbits of a lesser number then what would beconsidered a "mill".
98% of the rabbits I examined had NORMAL body condition. It is untruethat most were thin or wasted. The rabbits were fed an acceptable highfiber (17%) high quality commercial rabbit diet. He did not feed hay,but the fiber content of the ration was acceptable for commericalrabbitrypurposes. He may have had many other issues ofsanitation, ventilation and inadequate watering system but the rabbitswere not dehydrated and were in good body condition. There were noobese animals. Dental condition was excellent with only two rabbitswith mild incisor malocclusion. There were approximately 4 thin animalsdue to various disease issues.
Regarding the feeding issues for these rabbits, as stated they were ona good quality commercial rabbit pellet at 17% fiber and around 16%protein. At the shelter we started them on a Purina Complete diet of20% minimum fiber and similar protein and other content. We also addedgrass hay as many of you know the many health benefits of hay, in thiscase my primary concern was to provide more indigestible fiber toprotect the GI tract (mostly the cecum) from huge fluctuationsin microflora that might occur in a population of rabbitsthat was under less then wonderful living
conditions, stressed by the move to the shelter, stressed by the newhousing and all the sights and sounds at the shelter and for thoseindividuals stressed by overt
disease and consequent medication. We asked that NO fresh foods begiven at this time as that just introduces more new variables to a "GIfragile" population. Of course we all know that fresh greens are greatfor rabbits but in this case I knew I would have breaks of temporarysoft stools from greens introduction thus making my job of monitoringserious disease more difficult. It may take a few weeks to get the GIflora to become stablized after all this stress at which time we
will reevaluate the diet for any further additions such as fresh foods.Fresh foods are not a critical issue right now. Allowing these rabbitsto become stabilized is more important.
Approximately 25% of the rabbits had infectious disease, either rabbitsyphilis (caused by the spirochete bacteria Treponema cuniculi) orupper respiratory
infection or pneumonia. The URI and pneumonia could have been caused bya whole range of bacteria, and Pasteurella I am sure was in the mix butI am not calling this a pasteurella outbreak because that is a bitsimplistic. Suffice it to say, they were predisposed to developingrespiratory infections by poor ventilation, high ammonia levels andsanitation and by not treating the animals as they broke with disease to
help prevent the spread. In a commercial rabbitry you MIGHT have 10%infectious disease present as acceptable to the commercial industry,but this was double that
rate and was considered high.
Rabbit syphilis is NOT fatal and is treatable with injectiblepenicillin which these rabbits have received and have all resolvedtheir lesions. URI in itself is not fatal
unless it goes into pneumonia. But of course it needs to be treatedeven in the earlier stages because it can progress and it can in itschronic state cause damage to the sinus and an uncomfortable livingcondition with clogging of the sinuses with discharge making itdifficult to breath through the nose. URI and pneumonia
rabbits are receiving appropriate antibiotics for their treatment andmost are back to normal or are doing better. We have a total of 7rabbits that died from pneumonia based on post mortem results and havehad no further deaths from pneumonia since 3/2/07.
The respiratory disease and the syphilis were the two most prominentproblems, again in only 25% of the rabbits. We did note that some groupfecals were
positive for coccidia which can be a common problem in rabbitries andis relatively easy to treat, but no rabbits appeared to be ill fromcoccidia, as in none were wasting away or had abnormal stools. Eachrabbit will be assessed individually for the need or not to treat thisafter we find out if the rabbits indeed will be
turned over to the SSHS. There were a smattering of otherproblems,overgrown nails that were excessive on about 30% of therabbits, some with excessive hair
matting (only in the Jersey Woolies) that has all be groomed off. Onlytwo with serious pododermatitis on their feet. We had 10 rabbits thathad corneal edema and some ulceration possibly from traumatic injuriesfrom cagemates nails or something that was in the cage they might havecome up against (small metal point on feeder or who knows). There wereNO rabbits with parts of eyes missing!
No animals were euthanized, nor to date do any need to be.
There were NO tumors! One rabbit had a large abscess that it hadaclimated to which has since drained and will be surgically removed ifthe rabbits are turned over
to the SSHS. He is not in any pain or discomfort at this time.
Here is the overall message I would like to convey. In my opinion thiswas not a rabbit mill, this was a breeder who had too many rabbits tomanage under poor
circumstances. Of course he was selling rabbits but I do not believethat producing maximum amounts of rabbits in minimum time withoutconcern for genetic health was his entire motive due to the highquality of the animals and the low rate of pregnancies we saw at thetime. I do not feel there was evil intent, but seriously bad managementin terms of sanitation, ventilation, watering system, help
needed, and lack of veterinary services which of course affected thehealth of the rabbits which is why they were removed. I am notdefending the actions of the breeder who was unable to implement theresponsibilities to his animals, but I am suggesting that making wildand inflammatory statements about him as a person and what his supposedpurposes were do nothing to serve the best interest of
getting some education out there on rabbit care. I am saddened anddisturbed to hear reports that ALL the rabbits were ill or that MOSTwere dying or so on, which is ABSOLUTELY NOT FACTUAL. In fact, it is tothe credit of the people that investigated this case that the animalswere removed before there were worse problems and it is a testament tothe high quality of rabbits he had the not more of them were ill.
