Family of rabbits cruelly dumped in Hughenden Park

Over the weekend, our local volunteers successfully rescued eight pet rabbits that had been cruelly dumped and left to fend for themselves in Hughenden Park.

A member of the public first spotted one abandoned rabbit on the loose on Wednesday night but, over the following three days, further reports made it clear that an entire family had simply been dumped in the park. Our wonderful volunteers, aided by some incredible members of the public, managed to round up and rescue eight rabbits – a mum, dad and their six babies.

It beggars belief that somebody would abandon helpless rabbits like this. Domestic pet rabbits have no idea how to fend for themselves, and if it weren’t for the kind member of the public who reported this to us, these animals would soon have died or been killed by foxes or other predators. We recovered eight rabbits in the end, but there may well have been others that we didn’t find, or that had already been killed.

While we understand that finances are tight at the moment, it is never acceptable to abandon defenceless, helpless animals like this. It is astonishing that somebody is cruel enough to treat animals in this way.

The rabbits are now being cared for by our volunteer fosterers, who report that the mother was in a very poor state. Her back leg muscles are badly under-developed, suggesting that she has been kept in a tiny hutch or container with no room to move around or exercise. What’s more, her back and hind quarters were covered in urine, suggesting that her babies were squashed in with her so tightly that they had to lie on top of her.

The next stage of the care for these rabbits will be to get them health checked, vaccinated and neutered and nursed back to full health before finding them new loving homes. For eight rabbits, health checks, neutering and vaccinations will cost us £2000, without taking into account the additional costs of feeding them and any other medical treatments they may require. For a small, local charity like us, this is a significant cost. If you would like to contribute to getting this lovely family of rabbits on the road to a better life, donations will be hugely appreciated at www.justgiving.com/charity/rspca-southbucks 

Thank you to our volunteers and members of the public who helped save these defenceless rabbits. If anybody has any information on who abandoned them please email us at info@rspca-southbucks.org.uk