a sad day for the belgian hare breed

I went to a local rabbit and rabbit hutch supplier today. We were driving past so nipped in to have a look. I glanced over and DH said 'are those belgian hares over there?' And low and behold they were. A rufus red and a black & tan. Beautiful

Anyway, I was chatting to the bloke who owned the store and he said he'd travelled a long way to pick up these two as they are quite hard to find. (which they are unless you do your research) The red one was a doe and the black & tan a buck. A breeding pair He said that he hoped to have some litters next year. I was a bit taken aback that he thought it woud take till next year for the doe to produce a litter I also felt a bit angry that a glorified rabbit store would be selling a hare to any old Tom **** or Harry that came into his store. I can just imagine these poor buns being shoved in tiny hutches. They do sell 6ft hutches that are deep and good quality but their prices are criminal! Off putting to a potential customer who doesn't see why a 4ft hutch that costs less isn't any good for any rabbit let alone a hare.

But, it saddened me the most because he is muddying the gene pool by breeding the two colours together. Why would you do that? Hares are either rufus red, black & tan or quite rarely totally black. Breeders have perfected these colours of hare by selective breeding and the hare comes from selective breeding from Flemish Giants. Why muddle up the genetics? No doubt one of the offspring will be paired up with a lop or a lionhead creating a very odd looking rabbit indeed.

I said to DH a while back, that the day a hare ended up for sale in petshops, would be a very sad day for the hare. Looks like is happening I don't know why I feel so strongly about this but I do. Sorry for the rant and thanks for listening.

They also had no hay that I could see, nothing in their run to keep them busy and the run wasn't protected from the elements or insulated. They live in one of those huge chicken coop things with a nest box at the top. It was a good roomy size, but the house bit was too small if it was raining all day and they were stuck in there all day.

Report them. I have reported pet shops for no hay before.

I don't feel as you do about the colourings though. I tend to think that in evolution terms the strongest animals are the non-pedigree ones. Elsewhere in the rabbit world there are serious illnesses related to breeding for colour. For example I seem to remember that BEWs are more likely to have heart disease.

I don't think I would have been able to leave the shops without saying something about responsible breeding and selling and making sure new owners have the right set ups for hares.

that is awful i agree report them

Also obviously report them for inadequate housing.

cheryl'n'bruce'flo wrote:Report them. I have reported pet shops for no hay before.

I don't feel as you do about the colourings though. I tend to think that in evolution terms the strongest animals are the non-pedigree ones.Elsewhere in the rabbit world there are serious illnesses related to breeding for colour. For example I seem to remember that BEWs are more likely to have heart disease.

I don't think I would have been able to leave the shops without saying something about responsible breeding and selling and making sure new owners have the right set ups for hares.

Bits in bold - I totally agree!

I agree that you should report them for the inadequate housing and no hay. I'm not sure about the colour/genetics part, but that for sure.

I have to say, my pet shop is very good. Whilst I don't agree with pet shops selling live animals particularly (says the girl whose rabbit was bought on impulse from a pet shop as a pity buy!), the rabbits here always have hay, fresh water, tunnels and clean bedding. The enclosures are lovely and big with lots of hidey spots, and they are indoors. I just think it's a shame that most of them will go from that nice living to a tiny little hutch somewhere at the bottom of the garden

I can understand why you feel more strongly for hares, they are a more specialist type of bun to look after and people fail to understand how to look after the every day rabbit, let alone one of them

I was surfing the net and found people are already breeding them to lionheads and similar I appreciate everyones views are different, this is just how I feel about them in particular

The owners were cleaning out the other breeding buns as I looked about so it is quite possible the hares were to be done next. I can see myself going back in the week to have a nose around.

I agree report them I report pet shops if I see something I don't like or there is no hay or the baby buns are far to young to be sold