Abandoned rabbit in cruelty horror

[hop 0]

A GIANT rabbit was dumped, with a serious head injury, in one of the worst cases of animal cruelty seen by a pet rescue worker.

Christine Thomas, 18, took in the 3ft bunny the day after it was found abandoned in a pet carrier box with a bloody head, ears infested with mites and a damaged leg, in Porters Avenue, Dagenham.

She said the injuries sustained by the French lop rabbit constituted the worst case she had seen, after dealing with up to 70 rescues in the past year.

The pet was operated on at the Animal Ark veterinary surgery, Goodmayes, on Tuesday and is expected to take months to fully recover.

Miss Thomas, of Reede Road, Dagenham, said: "Maybe the owners put off taking it to a vet because of the credit crunch. Maybe they thought the only option was to abandon it.

"Rabbits are the number one abandoned animal in the UK. There are 36,000 rabbits put into rescue centres every year."

She thinks the people who dumped the injured animal, with muesli in the box, on Sunday night, may have dreaded the £100 operation cost.

Miss Thomas is studying animal nursing at Writtle College, Chelmsford, and warned families against getting rabbits for young children. They are a popular present, especially at Easter.

She said rabbit owners were consistently given inaccurate information about vaccination and had difficulty finding sufficiently large hutches of at least 6ft by 2ft by 2ft.

She added: "I reckon maybe they got hold of the pet at Easter time, possibly for a child.

"Maybe, when they got it, they didn't realise it would get really big.


Abandoned rabbit in cruelty horror - 21/11/08
http://www.bdrecorder.co.uk/content/barkinganddagenham/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsBarkDag&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsbarkdag&itemid=WeED20%20Nov%202008%2018%3A49%3A13%3A350

[Animal 0]

pauvre petit chou ! L'histoire ne dit pas qu'est-ce, ou qui lui aurait causé ces terribles blessures...