Pets at Home importing rabbits at 8wks, neutering at 4-5wks.

[AWomanCalledHorse]

Below is a response from PAH regarding their VIP rabbits.
Sorry it's massive, just wondering what people think about this?

"In relation to our VIP rabbits, they come from a breeder on the continent, their facilities have been inspected by our Pets at home Head of Pets, who herself is an experienced Veterinary Surgeon.
The rabbits are neutered, microchipped and vaccinated against Myxomatosis and VHD, however we recommend topping up the VHD vaccine at 12 weeks of age. They are 8 weeks old when we first offer them for sale. The new Nobivac Myxo-RHD Vaccine was only launched last week so at the moment is not being used on these rabbits.

As a business we are paying additional costs to carry out the trial to understand how we can replicate the process in the UK, the VIP rabbits are transport by air to minimise the length of time travelling. Any pets that are imported into the UK are done so adhering to strict importation regulations specified by DEFRA and the EU. This is a small trial which includes a maximum of 16 stores at any one time out of 314 stores, for example we only received 26 neutered rabbits into our stores as part of the trial last week.

One of the key reasons for doing this is that this supplier has established breeding, weaning practices and takes a great deal of pride in the pets they breed. Their vet is highly trained and experienced in all aspects of animal care, but is a specialist in rabbits. He performs neutering procedures via surgery on rabbits at 4 ? 5 weeks of age whilst this is younger than in the UK, the vet is very experienced at this and recovery time is short for these rabbits.

It is our aim if the trial is successful to look for highly trained vets in this country with additional training who would be able to complete the neutering method so that we can reproduce the process in the UK, our Head of Pets will be investigating this possibility"

At risk of bringing up an old thread (frowned upon on MN)
I posted about P@H bringing guinea-pigs from Spain. The member of staff told me they were 8 weeks old and from Spain.
I saw 2 in one pen with gummy eyes (though one had it's eyes open when they caught it to check).

I know nothing about rabbits but I'm thinking 4-5 weeks is very young for quite major surgery.
And what are VIP Rabbirs .Are they fancy breeds?

What happens to these animals if they don't sell? Do you think they'd get flown back to the Continent?

Why on earth do they need to import them? It beggars belief that there are rescues full of rabbits (and guineas), they always have older/returned/unwanted anilmals at P@H until the next lot arrives. Where then?

And the GPs I saw were fancy bredds too. They had some long haired (their hair wasn't very long at 8 weeks but you could see the difference). Little fluffy 'Teddy' ones and some beautiful shiney ones which I've now discovered could be Satins. And when I read up on why they need an experienced owner I was at their health issues simply because they are bred for nicer fur.

It is sad, anger inducing and just so unneccesary.
I'm tempted to go down there to ask why the need to import. (But I made a pain in the bum of myself with the gammy eyed guinea)

If you saw where pet shop pets are bred you would sob. They are pretty much battery farmed in appalling conditions.

Here are some examples of how rats are kept, but this particular farm is for most small pets and is in the Netherlands if I remember correctly.

Rabbits united have a much longer thread if anyones interested...

This is being investigated by several rabbit/pet welfare groups so we need to hold tight till we get some independent info - everything we know about how the rabbits are treated is currently from PAH.

I would really implore people to boycott PAH pets and products, i personally don't want the guilt of having these buns ill treated to meet demand.

I will quite happily boycott P@H.

I know me not going in there won't stop the import and quite horrendous breeding, transporting and "sell the cute babies but what happens when they expire their cute-by-dare"

But they won't get my custom for hay and guinea-food again.

Neutering / spaying rabbits is usually done at 6 months .

It is important in females as it stops uterine cancer , which rabbits are prone too. But 4-5 weeks is far far too early .

Poor wee bunnies.

I feel queasy about the whole concept of a "pet superstore" that sells livestock. In the past, I have bought from PAH, but wouldn't again. I think they may get some stock from breeders - the animals that won't make conformation criteria, so "surplus to requirements." I don't actually know that much about rabbits and neutering and such but yes, independent investigation of whether this new VIP service is actually quite as PAH are spinning it would be welcome.

In my personal experience, pets at home seem to sell a lot of rabbits that are either sold 'adopted' with snuffles or go on to have dental/ genetic problems because they 1. Don't seem to care where the rabbits cone from/ what their genetic line is 2. Don't educate their customers in proper rabbit care and 3. They don't care for the rabbits properly themselves.

This has made me really upset, when i first heard of the vip buns i thought it was fantastic news, a step in the right direction for rabbit welfare.