Is my rescue rabbit an ex lab rabbit?

[Luna02]

We took in a rabbit a few years ago that had been found in the street a few months prior by a woman. The rabbit came to us directly from her. She had had half her ear cut off, toes missing, leg injury, and several scars on her body. The vet at the time told us that the ear had been cut by a human as it was such a clean cut, if it had been accidental or an animal it would look different. We had her neutered and the vet told us she had been bred several times and had tumours starting to grow and she was also infected with a parasite which was treated. She wouldn’t have lived for very long without all those treatments and 4 other bunnies that looked similar to her had been found by a rescue organisation but they all died. They all had one or both ears cut off.

At the time I couldn’t comprehend what kind of a sadist would cause all those injuries on a rabbit and why on earth did all the rabbits have an ear cut off. My friend suggested maybe they had a tattoo and they cut it so they couldn’t be traced back. I’ve also recently seen a laboratory set up, where they had a carrier box and a small space to run. When we first got her she would always run straight into a carrier box but she doesn’t do it anymore, it was quite obvious she had had one as her safe space.

I took her to vet recently for an eye infection and this was really the moment it hit me. She was there just so good being prodded, especially for a rabbit that has been abused it doesn’t make sense for her to just let you do anything to her without moving. The vet had to really clean her eye properly. When I give her medicine I just show her the syringe and she will take it voluntarily, the other rabbits I have to put it to the back of their mouths.

so what do you think? Of course we will never know for sure, but it would explain a lot. What do you think? Anyone with experience of working with animal in a laboratory?

My rabbits were not lab rabs but were easy to handle as you describe. A lab rab wouldn't have parasites. A bit of a mystery.

She was infected with E cuniculi which 80% of rabbits are carriers, she was also found in the streets so could have caught anything from the wild.

I'm so sorry, I don't know anything about rabbits but just think you are so bloody lovely, I wanted to say so ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you that’s very kind to say

I have no idea but you sound the like the kindest and most loving owner!
You make the world a better place ✨️ 💛

Bless you for taking this rabbit and making her better. That story is horrific. Poor babies. Xx

I agree

Lab animals are so tightly controlled by regulations and home office regulations, home office inspectors and home office vets that there is no way it is a lab rabbit.

No, the use of animals in labs and the facilities themselves are very different to how you are imagining it in almost every aspect. Some twisted person playing at experiments in their shed, perhaps. Although perhaps just a cruel person breeding rabbits for sale in their back garden.

I hate to say this but I think she's unlikely to be a lab animal as most of those are killed once the research is done. They're almost never sent to animal homes or set free as there are inherent risks depending on what type of research was carried out. I'm not 100% sure about rabbits, but mice are almost always killed. Students or researchers are taught a method for snapping their necks which kills them instantly. Very few people talk about this (for obvious reasons) but it's common knowledge in the medical field.

Also labs use very specific breeds of rabbit, is she one of those? You can see pictures if you google?

💔
This is sadistic, what a life.

I wonder if the ear was tattooed and they cut it before releasing rabbit/ rabbit escaped somehow. Maybe some sicko had them, and someone new and set them free. Or perhaps they did escape, maybe someone liberated them from a facility.

OP you sound lovely.

Her other ear has a big scar around the vein and I was reading this is where they take the blood from the rabbits. I will take a picture of it tomorrow and post it.

I am actually wondering if she might have been released on purpose, perhaps to contaminate wild rabbit populations. There was 4 others too that were found but they all died from the disease they had.

I know her past is sad, whatever it is that happened to her. I’ve never been able to comprehend what could have happened, this is the only thing that would make any sense. I don’t know why else anyone would cause so many different types of injuries on rabbit. She has scars on her body (visible when she looses her fur), her hearing is bad (she’s the last one to come out when you bring them food), she has missing toes, toes that have been broken and are now in a twisted position, an old injury on her leg.

But she is happy now. You can see she enjoys life more than the other rabbits. She jumps high and flicks her legs up in the air and chills out on the grass. I love how she comes running towards me and jumps against her pen to I can pick her up. How she can still trust humans after all this, I will never know.

She is a mixed breed, i think probably blanc de hotot mixed with another breed. Blanc de hotot is one of the breeds commonly used.

I want to add she wasn’t found in the UK but in Belgium.

Is it possible that the rabbits either escaped from or were let go from a rabbit farm? Blanc de hotot were originally bred for meat and fur. It's not uncommon to eat rabbit in many countries. You sound lovely OP, and have given her a super life.

I think that’s very possible as well. The vet did say she’d had a lot of babies, so perhaps she was used as a doe rather than destined for meat. After a few years they are not as good at producing litters so perhaps that’s why she and the others were let go.

She may have gotten the scars from being bitten by other rabbits, the broken toes and leg injury from the cage. It would explain the disease being kept in unhygienic conditions. Ears are tattooed, so would explain it being cut off. I don’t know how the other ear would have gotten a scar on it though.

I have a rescue rabbit but his history is nothing like this. Absolutely tragic.

Oh, bless you and your new friend, OP. You won’t ever know for sure but it seems the rabbit has had a difficult time whether or not it was a lab setting. Maybe that’s all you need to know? If she’s a cuddly soul, she might want a cuddle. If she’s not, let her come to you and she can build trust. You might never know what’s happened to her but what matters is that she has a kind soul treating her nicely. She’s got a very small world that she lives in and at the moment you’re her main human. She’ll learn to love you as time goes on and hopefully her experiences, whatever they were, will be behind her long before you stop worrying about them. Best wishes to you both.

I don’t know if this helps, but our valuable breed, very young rescue cat has probably been used for producing kittens and failed in some way. She reacts like a breeding queen despite being spayed - lots of trilling as you would hear a mother cat talking to her kittens and she’ll pick her favourite toys up gently, carry them around and hug them. We won’t ever know but she’s managed to settle in with us - I sometimes feel like her huge kitten! They do settle. What matters isn’t what’s happened in the past but how their humans treat them at the moment.