You see it time and time again. A well meaning parent buys their child a rabbit, making sure to purchase a small cage to keep it in. A pet shop has rabbits on display for sale with nothing but pellets available for food. Someone posts a picture of themselves holding a bunny by the scruff of its neck.
As rabbit lovers, these types of missteps make us cringe at best and keeps us up at night at worst.
So, how do we stop the mistreatment of bunnies?
For some people, the first instinct is to go on a rampage, starting fights online by commenting mean or snarky things to new rabbit owners. But as the saying goes, you catch more bees with honey.
If we go the route of mindful, loving conversations, we’re less likely to scare people off. It opens the door for continued learning and progressively better treatment of rabbits.
Researchers Sarah A. McMahon and Ellie Wigham conducted a study to see how people’s perception of a rabbit’s mental ability affects how their owner cares for them.
1516 people responded to the online survey, giving insights on what really impacts rabbit care.
Why do people think rabbits are boring and dumb?
In the more than 15 years I have owned rabbits, rabbit care had evolved tremendously.
My family got our first rabbits when I was in 4th grade. Mopsy and Flopsy (creative and unique names, I know) were the children of my cousin’s 4H rabbits. It was completely normal to keep rabbits outside in a hutch year-round.
We didn’t know any better, but one of my biggest regrets is how we treated those bunnies. We maybe checked on them every day, and that’s a generous estimate. When we did, it was to make sure they had food and water. We let them play outside in a fenced in area, but it’s not like it was every day.
The internet wasn’t the information overload it is today, so we didn’t realize other people treated their rabbits any differently.
To us, rabbits were very cute and sometimes funny, but it basically ended there. I don’t remember actively thinking about enrichment or my rabbits’ feelings. At the end of the day, we didn’t see them having thoughts and feelings the way we picture dogs and cats having them. So it didn’t necessarily feel wrong to stick them in a large cage and visit them once in a while. We did the best we knew how.
I suspect other people have a similar reason for not giving the best rabbit care.
People outside the rabbit community bubble aren’t aware of the evolution of rabbit care. They haven’t made it to the next step of realizing rabbits have personalities when they aren’t stuck in a 2 by 4 cage.
What areas of rabbit care are neglected?
There are a million and one ways people can neglect animals, but for rabbits specifically, McMahon and Wigham identified these three areas of shortcomings.
- Housing: Instead of giving rabbits plenty of room to run around, some owners just stick their buns in a cage and call it a day. Not everyone can free roam, so it’s important that enclosures are large and rabbits get time each day to stretch their legs and run around.
- Diet: Rabbits cannot live on pellets alone. Some pet stores and pet food companies perpetuate this misconception. Rabbits need plenty of hay and veggies in their diet too!
- Healthcare: This is a tough one even for humans looking to stay healthy. Medical bills are expensive, but it’s important to keep your rabbit healthy. That means annual visits to an exotic veterinarian and getting educated about basic rabbit health issues.
Besides just making a rabbit’s life miserable, falling short in these categories can mean a shorter and more painful life.
Research Results
Oddly enough, more than 90% of the rabbit owners that took the survey were women.
Of those surveyed,
- 59.3% kept their rabbit with another rabbit.
- 89.3% considered themselves a part of the rabbit community.
- 70% were from the UK and 11.9% were from the United States.
Most of the rabbit owners surveyed free roamed their bunny inside, fed them mostly hay, and gave their bun four enrichment items.
How the owners perceived their bunnies
The study reviewed what the owners thought about their rabbit’s ability to feel emotions and pain, as well as how smart they were.
- If people felt that rabbits could experience higher degrees of pain, they were more likely to provide indoor housing/free roaming and more enrichment opportunities.
- If people felt rabbits could experience higher degrees of pain AND emotion, they were more likely to house their bun with a friend.
- If people felt rabbits are intelligent, they were more likely to feed their rabbits more vegetables versus muesli (an unhealthy food mix of things like flaked maize, peas, pellets, grains and seeds).
Most believed rabbits could form strong bonds with other rabbits and humans – but didn’t necessarily hate being an “only child.”
What you can do to educate people being intelligence, pain, and emotions in rabbits
Rabbits are easily misunderstood.
So when you’re talking to a new pet owner, it’s best to skip the judgement and go straight to kind education.
Here are some practical things you can share to showcase how smart rabbits are, how they show emotions, and how they can feel pain.
Intelligence
- Rabbit agility: Rabbits are smart enough to participate in agility competitions, just like dogs! Show people videos of rabbits jumping in those competitions.
- Puzzle feeders: Rabbits are smart enough to figure out puzzle feeders too!
- Learning their name: Many rabbits learn their own name and can come when called (especially when there are treats involved).
- Share your stories: I know Baby, my lionhead, is a smart one because he’s figured out how to get at treats that are stored away. Share anecdotes from your own life!
Emotions
Show new owners rabbit body language and teach them what the different sounds a rabbit make means!
Too often, I hear people say, “My rabbit doesn’t love me.” But then say their rabbit binkies when they enter a room, lick them, and lay down next to their feet.
Rabbits express themselves differently, just like humans. Some may lick their owners as a sign of affection, while others may “chin” their owners to claim them. It can be confusing to someone who is only used to the outward enthusiasm of a dog or the clear purring of a cat!
Pain
Explain why a new bunny owner may not notice when their fur child is in pain! As a prey animal, they’re not going to advertise their weaknesses on a billboard!
This is where your experience comes into play! If you’ve had rabbits that have gone through illnesses, you can share your story. Explain the subtle details that you noticed, like your rabbit hunching over a bit more or wasn’t as bouncy as usual.
Do your best while avoiding confrontation
All the researching and prompting in the world won’t be enough to change some people’s minds.
The main thing is that you try your best to educate people without working yourself up to a full blown argument. At the end of the day, it’s not worth your stress and mental energy. All you can do at that point is exhibit proper rabbit care through your own dedicated example.
There are so many rabbits in this world, and so so many of them are mistreated. You can’t help all of them. But if you even help one, it will have been worth the effort of sharing this information.
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