Hello, I see you are in Berkshire. I am Lorna from Green Fields Rescue and I would urge you PLEASE not to add to our problems here at Green Fields and at other local rescues, by breeding. The numbers of rabbits looking for homes in this area is totally unmanageable and I am not overstating things when I say that the numbers of unwanted rabbits in this area is reaching utterly epidemic proportions. We are at the stage here where the waiting list of rabbits to come in here is so long that I am only able to take the most urgent cases. However, this means that because the rescues are saturated and people dont have the option to access rescues when they need to, that we are finding that there is a huge increase in the numbers of really urgent cases we have to take right away such as rabbits who have been dumped at vets surgeries, found running loose, strays, pregnant females that are at risk, that kind of thing as people get more and more desperate.

The underlying problem is both over "production" of rabbits and very very poor education at the point of obtaining the rabbits and we are working as hard as we possibly can to address both of these problems behind the scenes. Thank goodness there are forums like this one where people can come and ask questions just as you have.

We have several breeders in this area already making our lives miserable with the numbers they are producing and with one in particular, we hear that people go there not really aware of what they are going to, you know, they just see the breeder as an alternative to the local pet shop, and when they get there, they feel so sorry for the rabbits because of the conditions they are kept in that they end up taking whole litters away and then phoning us and asking us to take them when they realise in the cold light of day that they cannot keep them all!! Breeders always say they cant see how they are impacting on rescues and yet we have many here that have gone from breeder to rescue in less than a week!!!

We also have 2 branches of Pets at Home and a Notcutts and a Wyevales also churning out rabbits with, it seems, almost no effort to correctly sex them.

There is also 4 or 5 childrens "petting zoos" locally who will impulse sell both rabbits and guinea pigs on the spot to anyone who asks for them and at one point they had so many they were actually giving them away free.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what the situation is LOCALLY TO YOU.

This that I am SOOO pleased to see so many people on this forum supporting rescues by urging you not to go ahead and I can only wholeheartedly agree with everything that has been said so far.

If you would like to contact us or come and visit us during our opening hours perhaps we can talk some more about how best for you to proceed.

I really want to do this and I see no problem when they have homes. The people that want them wouldn't rehome rescue rabbits.