Gosling Emma M, Vázquez-Diosdado Jorge A, Harvey Naomi D
Politics and Society, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR, Hampshire, UK.
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham LE12 5RD, Leicestershire, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Nov 6;8(11):199. doi: 10.3390/ani8110199.
Conditions of pet rabbit breeding colonies and breeder practices are undocumented and very little is known about the pet rabbit sales market. Here, multiple methods were employed to investigate this sector of the UK pet industry. A freedom of information request sent to 10% of councils revealed confusion and inconsistency in licensing conditions. Data from 1-month of online sale adverts (3446) identified 646 self-declared breeders, of which 1.08% were licensed. Further, despite veterinary advice to vaccinate rabbits from five weeks, only 16.7% rabbits were vaccinated and 9.2% of adult rabbits were neutered. Thirty-three breeders completed a questionnaire of which 51.5% provided smaller housing than recommended, the majority housed rabbits singly and bucks were identified as most at risk of compromised welfare. However, most breeders provided enrichment and gave a diet compliant with recommended guidelines. Mini-lops and Netherland dwarfs were the most commonly sold breeds, both of which are brachycephalic, which can compromise their health and wellbeing. From sales data extrapolation, we estimate that 254,804 rabbits are purposefully bred for the UK online pet sales market each year. This data is the first of its kind and highlights welfare concerns within the pet rabbit breeding sector, which is unregulated and difficult to access.
宠物兔养殖群体的状况以及养殖者的做法并无记录，人们对宠物兔销售市场也知之甚少。在此，我们采用多种方法对英国宠物行业的这一领域进行了调查。向10%的地方议会发送的信息自由请求显示，许可条件存在混乱和不一致的情况。来自1个月在线销售广告（3446条）的数据识别出646名自称的养殖者，其中1.08%持有许可证。此外，尽管兽医建议在兔子五周大时进行疫苗接种，但只有16.7%的兔子接种了疫苗，9.2%的成年兔子做了绝育。33名养殖者完成了一份调查问卷，其中51.5%提供的兔舍比建议的小，大多数兔子单独饲养，公兔被确定为福利受损风险最高的群体。然而，大多数养殖者提供了丰富的环境并给予符合推荐指南的饮食。迷你垂耳兔和荷兰侏儒兔是最常出售的品种，这两个品种都是短头品种，可能会影响它们的健康和福祉。根据销售数据推断，我们估计每年有254,804只兔子专门为英国在线宠物销售市场繁育。这些数据尚属首次，凸显了宠物兔养殖行业中存在的福利问题，该行业缺乏监管且难以深入了解。
