Would you abandon an unwanted rabbit by the side of the road?? :-(

[dustystar]

We were out on a walk yesterday and as we were walking back up to the car we saw an older couple peering into the undergrowth by the side of the lane. When we drew level with them they pointed to a rabbit that they had seen. we could see it wasn't a wild rabbit so the children and i went into the woods at the side of the road to investigate and found a beautiful lop eared rabbit that had been dumped alongside a cardbaord pet carrier with some food and hay

The box was hidden from sight behind a tree that was about 15 feet from the road so the rabbit was definitely dumped there. I wasn't prepared to leave it there so we brought it back home with us. Sadly we may well not be able to keep it as I doubt very much our rabbit will accept another rabbit in her hutch but we are going to try and see just as soon as we know whether the abandoned bunny is disease free.

I just find it incredible that someone would dump and animal like that and not take it to the RSPCA. It is a healthy, friendly and beautiful rabbit that appears well cared for and yet the owner would rather dump it by the side of the road than find it another home

awww some people can be very ignorant, and knowing that 'rabbits live wild' they probably assumed that bunny would be fine. I hope they did anyway, because it's horrible to think they dumped it knowing the local rabbits twould beat it up

Somehow I doubt very much that our rabbit will like a new friend as she is very territorial but we will have to see. Luckily I have a couple of people lined up to take her on if we can't keep her. DD will be completely gutted if we have to let her go though. She has already named her and is referring to her as my rabbit

Its not just the local bully-bunnys that I was worried about but foxes and cats. This rabbit is very tame and i really don't think she'd have had a clue what to do

how is the rabbit dusty?

It's very that people would do this. Sadly though the rescue shelters are full to overflowing with rabbits and most just don't have capasity for any more, so they end up being abandoned.

We found a rabbit that had been dumped last year. We had stopped in a gateway and saw this little black rabbit sitting in the verge. We managed to catch it but we also found the body of it's friend who hadn't made it! It was really upsetting. I work for an animal welfare charity and it annoys me that there are so many places that will take them but people still leave on the side of the road.

Hope the rabbit is doing ok.

My dp came home with our rabbit, an albino one, when he was out with the dog.
Luckily the dog didn't harm it and we tried to get a local shelter to take it.
They were all full and no one would take it.
We ended up keeping her bu it cost us quite a bit for cage, vet checks etc.
I think this is the reason why some people dump them.
But i still think it's very

She seems fine. No obvious signs of illness but I'm going to keep her isolated for the full 2 weeks just in case. Sadly she's nowhere near as clean as our other rabbit who will happily use a litter tray both in her hutch and inside our house. This new rabbit digs in her litter tray, scattering sawdust everywhere - then she hops around the kitchen and poos and wees wherever she's stood at the time. She's a lovely rabbit but i'll be glad when she can go outside

One of our, very loved, rabbits escaped when I was a child. It was very sad, but then over the years we saw more and more black rabbits in and around the local warren. She had clearly made friends and had many a baby rabbit. There were still black rabbits in the gene pool up until about 10 years ago (I'm guessing natural selection overcame human selective breeding in the end [sad))

It is very wrong to dump rabbits, no excuse for it. Cruel and selfish.

But if yours ever do escape, then there is hope that the story will end in a "Watership Down"-ish way (without the General)

This is not a tale to encourage rabbit dumping in a "Look that one survived" kind of a way. I'm sure mine was the exception and not the rule.