May 2011

TH E • BOING website makeover

B U N OL OGIST •
•
Rabbit battery farms in UK
Rabbits rescued in Florida
Rabbits & children
Your FREE monthly rabbit newsletter •
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To join, visit www.scribd.com/bunologist • Life at the Do Hop Inn
or www.boingonline.com

The new BOING website!! Rabbits rescued from

breeder in Florida
8 May 2011 – www.WBRZ.com (US)

FLORIDA – Nearly 80 rabbits got a second chance at life

after they were days away from being gassed to death.

In an interview with a
news station in Florida,
rabbit breeder Carolyn
Barnett said she was
prepared to gas the
rabbits because she
couldn’t afford to keep

www.boingonline.com them.

Magic Happens Rabbit

After many months of revamping the BOING website, we
are happy to announce the new look is up & running! We
hope you enjoy the new pages and new information that
keeps your bunnies up to date with the latest care and
advice for their long term health & happiness. If you notice
anything that needs a bit of tweaking, please contact us at
askboing@hotmail.com
Rescue founder Wendy Lincoln says the news video “went
viral” after it was posted on Facebook. That’s when 15
rabbit rescue organizations from seven states stepped in to
help.
Fourteen of the eighty rescued rabbits were transported to
Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue in Baton Rouge. After a
quick checkup, the rabbits got comfortable in their
temporary homes.

“They’ve never had hay, vegetables, a towel, nothing of the

Rabbit Battery Farms to sort. Not a toy, nothing to chew on other than their
food,”Lincoln said. “They’ve never seen outside and
return to UK they’ve never laid their feet on the grass. They never got to
nibble the clovers, anything like that. They’re going to get
30 April 2011 – The Independent (UK)
to do that next week.”
Battery farming of rabbits is set to return to Britain for the
As for the breeder, she’s getting out of the bunny business,
first time in more than 15 years to satisfying a growing
according to Lincoln.
hunger for their meat.
“She promises no more breeding whatsoever. She was in
A Lincolnshire farmer has lodged at least six planning
it for the money to start with, and she wasn’t getting it, so
applications for farms that are designed to cage up to 1,000
she got out for good,” Lincoln said.
of the animals each. Celebrity chefs such as Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall and Nigella Lawson have
The new bunnies will stay at Magic Happens Rabbit
championed rabbit meat, and earlier this year supermarket
Rescue until they are spayed or neutered.
chain Waitrose reported a 350 per cent jump in sales.
** The rabbit rescues had to match the local zoo’s offer of
The RSPCA said it had "serious concerns" about the
$8 each per rabbit to the breeder as that was the amount
conditions for rabbits in battery farms, particularly the
she was offered by the local zoo to use them as snake
amount of space they were given. The animals would be
food. The breeder was not prepared to surrender the
kept in metre-long wire cages stacked three high in barns
rabbits for free.
for 12 weeks, before being sent to slaughter

Rabbits & Children
http://www.boingonline.com/children_and_rabbits.html
For too long it has been thought that rabbits are great
"starter" pets for children. This is completely inaccurate.
Rabbits are misunderstood and delicate creatures with
strong personalities, sharp teeth and nails. Not only can
children easily injure a rabbit but also a rabbit can injure
your child. All children under 15 should be supervised with
a rabbit.
When a rabbit and child are not supervised, the rabbit will
always come out second best. Sadly there are too many
stories about rabbits being accidentally killed by small
children, such as the bunny who was taken to the park and
dropped down the slide until it didn't move anymore. Or the
one that was brought inside to sleep with a little girl who
placed it under her pillow where it suffocated overnight.
That's just two true stories but sadly there are so many
more. Rabbits are living, breathing little bundles of
personality and love. They are not a toy
Injuries to children & rabbit
Scratches &
kicking
Rabbits are built
differently to other
animals and can
easily be injured if
not interacted with
correctly.
Rabbits are very
bottom heavy.
Their back legs are much bigger than their front legs and
this means that they hold most of their weight in the
second half of their body.
If a rabbit is held or picked up incorrectly, a rabbit will panic
and kick out with its strong hind legs. This kicking can
cause a child to drop the rabbit. A rabbit will drop to the
ground bottom first causing breaks, serious injury and
sometimes death.
The child can also be injured by the scratching of the nails
and the kicking of the legs.
Bites from sharp teeth
When a rabbit turns 5-6 months of age, a bunny will
change from that fluffy, cute and tolerant rabbit that they
once were as a baby bunny
A nasty bunny bite on the inside of the wrist
Once a bunny hits 6 months of age, they are now a
teenager. Their personality emerges and they start to make
their own decisions on how they want to be treated by their
human friends. Rabbits have very strong personalities and
if they do not want to be handled or picked up as they did
as a baby bunny, or are frightened by chasing or loud
noises, they will start to lunge and bite the children.
A rabbit's bite is very sharp and hard
A rabbit's front teeth need to constantly grow and grind
down to the sharpness of a razor blade to ensure they can
chew hard fibrous foods.
When a rabbit bites human skin, the incisor teeth plunge
deep into the skin. Rabbits can hold their bite in fear for
quite a long time and the pain is intense
Rabbits are fabulous companions for the right person and
some children can be excellent with small animals.
Children, however, should never be the main carer for a
rabbit.
Rabbits HATE loud noises and will attack if
threatened
Rabbits are not fond of loud noises, being chased and are
very territorial and aggressive if threatened. Most rabbits
that are surrendered to shelters were bought for small
children. When the bunny hits the age of around 6 months,
they start to mature and become their own little personality.
This is when the bunny decides that they will not tolerate
being picked up or handled roughly. Rabbits can start to
growl, lunge, bite or chase whoever is the threat. Once a
bunny starts to show these signs, most families ditch the
bun instead of learning how to adjust and interact with their
maturing rabbit.
Do you have 10 years to dedicate to a rabbit?
Rabbits live for 10 years or more if looked after properly.
Rabbits need regular veterinary visits, desexing & yearly
vaccinations. Desexing helps with behaviour and long term
health issues. Calici vaccinations are yearly and this is a
good opportunity to have your bun health checked. Rabbits
age 8 years to our 1 so a yearly checkup is vital to keep up
with any health issues.
Rabbits need good food
Rabbits need good quality vegies that you would eat
yourself, not freebies from a bin.
Rabbits need good quality hay from a stockfeed store, not
dried up pet hay from a pet shop or inedible straw.
Rabbits need to know they are safe
Rabbits need a safe space to run, not cooped up in a box
in the backyard or left outside to fend for themselves. If
inside, they need a safe bunny proofed room and a safe
place to sleep. If they live outside, their enclosure needs to
be BIG and INSECT/PREDATOR PROOFED.
All this requires money.
Rabbits need a mature person to look after them. They are
not a toy for a small child.
 Build an indoor house
http://www.boingonline.com/build_indoor_house.html
To make the indoor enclosure below, you'll need:
• 50 NIC cubes
• 200 cable ties (always better to have too many, than
not enough)
• 2-3 medium sized bulldog clips (that fit between the
grids so they close properly)
• cut to size flooring (we used external 6mm ply wood as
it's thick enough to stay flat and doesn't matter if the
bunny wees on it or chews it)
• reinforcing rods (if the enclosure is 2 squares wide,
reinforcing wooden rods help keep the enclosure stable
- we used cheap pine)
** the Melbourne Rabbit Clinic are now selling the
squares & cable ties above (in stylish black), If you are
interested, please contact them on 9758 9879
The end result is a sturdy, two storey enclosure. The
bulldog clips hold the doors shut. The plywood floors cover
the top & ground floors and towels cover the plywood to
ensure a warm and non slip surface.
This enclosure was made in an L shape that fits over the
top of a set of drawers and an added extension. The
shape can be whatever you want it to be & wherever it fits
best. The location has one part in front of a window so the
bunny can see out, get some fresh air and sunshine.
There is a blind over the window so it can be closed at
night. We have place lino under the enclosure to protect
the furniture and catches any messes that may occur.
These indoor enclosures are really flexible in their uses. If
you have only one or a bonded pair of buns, you can either
place them on ground level so you could leave the door
open when you're home so the bunnies can come out for a
run & go home when they want to.
If you have other animals, children or your rooms are not
bunny proofed... or you have a bad back & cannot reach
down, placing the enclosure on a higher area (like the one
above) will ensure that your buns are safe & secure.
The size of these enclosures ensure that there is enough
room inside to fit a large litter tray, lots of clean towels, toys
& a cardboard box to play & hide in

. Life at the Do Hop Inn
By Karen
Freedom Day
This month we celebrate the mighty two year Freedom Day
Anniversary for our meat farm rabbits – Lulu Belle, Poppy
Popstar & Isabelle Von Izzy Wizzy.
Lulu Belle stretched out on her favourite
cardboard box
Poppy Popstar
Isabelle Von Izzy Wizzy having a snooze
nd
Two years ago on the 22 of May, these beautiful bunnies
(plus Zoe who sadly passed away) were rescued from an
intensive rabbit meat factory farm located near Geelong.
The four bunnies that came to stay with us were scared,
stressed and needed time to figure out how to use their legs
again, stretch and stand, walk on hard surfaces, how to run,
they discovered how nice it was to eat vegetables and hay
and learnt how to drink out of a bowl.
In the last two years, we have enjoyed every moment with
our ex farm bunnies. We know they would not be around
today if it wasn’t for some very brave people from UPROAR
who chose to visit this rabbit meat farm (housing thousands
of beautiful and intelligent rabbits just like our girls) and
saved these brilliant bunnies.
Our ex meat farm buns are the reason we started up
Radical Rabbit – www.radicalrabbit.org to try & educate
people about rabbit abuse.
Easter
In other news at the Do Hop Inn, Easter was quite a
squeeze after looking after a few holiday buns. We love to
have some of our favourites visit for the holidays…. but we
also feel quite relieved and happy when they go back home
to their loving families again!
Jack Rabbit
We also have now taken in a new bun to the BOING
household. A little fellow by the name of Jack has come to
stay after his girlfriend passed away suddenly.
Jack has been very lonely and we hope to bond him with
one of our bunnies. We’ll keep you all up to date with the
latest on Jack and who he falls in love with (hopefully!!!).
Jack Rabbit on his first day at the Do Hop Inn