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I had posted this blog entry last month, but removed it, due to some rather unhappy emails from some fellow breeders. I feel that maybe I really was saying something important if I stirred up enough emotion to receive those, so I am reposting the entry.

Breeding Ethics

I have a feeling this type of post might happen a few times on here. I'm starting to really feel upset over my local fellow breeders and many of their choices or doings. Almost any I speak with or even look at their sites, are selling rabbits under eight weeks of age, breeding rabbits simply to sell them (to pet stores or privately, or both) and lastly, breeders over breeding their poor does and/or breeding a doe very young (under or just 6 months of age), and lastly, ditching a doe that no longer produces live litters.

My does have one to three litters a year, with several months of rest between them. They are pets first, above all else. Some of my does are five to seven years of age, I think if they are happy and can have one litter, then thats wonderful, if not, they get to laze around. My litters are carefully planned and are done in hopes of producing the nicest show quality babies I can. I understand this isn't so much the norm but I just wish that care, health and happiness of the bunnies was put before someone trying to profit from a hobby that really has zero profit. (It is possible to make a profit, at the expense of the bunnies though. Sometimes I think people forget that the amount of time and money you put into a hobby, is simply only returned by the joy you get from your hobby).

Anyhow, after reviewing some sites and some other breeders practices, I'm getting worried about the "norm" of what breeders do. Some of these breeders are weaning babies at 4 to 5 weeks of age, and rebreeding the doe right then, or exactly when they wean (some breeders still wait for 6 to 8 weeks to wean). The does get no time to rest and be......just bunnies. They are baby making machines! I've been really upset by the entire deal, caught between anger and sadness. I didn't realize that bunnies were not always considered to be cute, wonderful pets by a vast majority of breeders (I thought a lot of us did this out of love for the breed). And worse off, if the doe makes it through a life of being bred like this, she is then not even retired but often just resold to someone new, sent to auction, or better yet, they try to "pet" her out (because I've never even heard of anyone adopting a bunny over the age of five, or heck..really over four).

If a doe gives a breeder years of wonderful babies (geeze, even a year since they are getting around 6 litters a year from her), they better darn well give the doe a nice retirement to live out her days as well. I have two elder Holland here, one eleven and one nine. They have been retired for years and they still love their treats, hay, toys and beds. And I have more that will retire this year and the next, and still get to live here and be...bunnies. I think part of this might be why some people are in shock when I tell them I normally have my bunnies live to be eleven to fourteen years of age.

I'm sorry this posting is really just a vent for me. I've been up in tears the past few days after hearing about where some of my bunnies have ended up and the type of breeders that now own them.

On the flipside, I've also had a good laugh from a few, as some of these breeders sometimes try to sell the bunnies bred by me for more than they paid for them (and no, nothing changed between the time, no show legs or anything). Often times, it is a proven doe, that simply is not happy with her living conditions and is not producing as many babies as the breeder wants (after seeing some of these rabbitries, I wouldn't be a happy rabbit either). Lesson one to me, be far more careful in whom my bunnies are going to.