Fair Time

[skibunny8503]

Well it’s that time again….fried food, grandstand events, rides and animals.  We went out to a fair about 45 min. away from us.  We’re more excited about next week’s fair, it’s a lot better and more to do.  We went out for supper and some fried oreos but had to park a 1/4 miles away from the fairgrounds and walked a whole lot!  We wandered around until we finally got to the rabbits.  They don’t have as much as Canfield (next weeks fair) and it’s actually a lot cleaner.  There were so many pretty rabbits there and I felt so bad for them.  There was a few rex’s that looked like Remy, they were so cute!  I was disappointed and disgusted when I saw looked in one cage with a mother and her buns eating something green and looking more I saw it was corn husks and there was a corn on the cob in there!    One rabbit had a little fan by it’s cage which was nice….the weather hasn’t been as hot as usual so at least they weren’t as hot.  Some cages had little rubber things in them so they weren’t on the wire cage bottom as much.  There was this rex that was so pretty, it was white and gray, had a gray strip running all down it’s back and was semetrical on each side of it’s body…if it had a circle on the left side by it’s leg, there was one on the right side.  I saw a few bunnies that looked like Sandy and wonder if that’s how big she’ll get   There was an Agouti French Lop that was huge!  It laid down and I rubs it’s head for awhile, I didn’t want to leave it.  It wasn’t for sale (or I might have tried to convince hubby to buy it hehe!)  I would have called it Bear because it was as big as one!  I was a bit sad when I left, wishing I could stay with them to scratch all their heads, but it was getting late.  Before we left there was a girl sitting by this table with a little black baby dwarf.  It had a little white mark on it’s forhead and one of it’s eyes was whitish.  We asked if the baby had a cataract and she said no, that the baby was born blind (maybe due to inbreeding…who knows).  The poor thing. 

I think you really don’t realize the crulty of it until you actually own a house rabbit.  All the kids were like “Look at the bunnies!  Can I have one?” (fortunately the parent lied to the kid and said they weren’t for sale), it kind of bugged me.  One of the black rexes was pacing back and forth it’s 2×2 cage wanting to run around but couldn’t. 

God help me for next week, I might actually buy one

When I got home my bunnies looked at me like “man we’ve been stuck in this cage all day, let us out!”….they have no idea how lucky they are!

[KytKattin]

Having a rabbit (Nova) that was abused and abandoned by a breeder I can tell how grateful she is for what she has. She is actually happier in her 2×5 cage most of the time than being able to run around because she finds 4 walls comforting. Big areas scare her. Heck, she thought her current cage was too big when I first put her in it! She does like toys though. I’m not sure why more breeders don’t just throw in toilet paper rolls for their rabbits to play with. Breeders have to wipe too! I also don’t understand why more hay isn’t given to rabbits. It’s cheaper than pellets. Every breeder I’ve ever met only gives it as a treat. It simply baffles me.
Eclipse on the other hand, while also coming from a breeder, was loved and a house rabbit since being a baby. She never sits still, is very demanding of attention, and needs out of cage time every day in order to thrive. She knows what it’s like to live and enjoy life. I finally know what everyone is talking about when they talk about house rabbits! It really is almost like a different species of animal.

[Monkeybun]

Me and the hubby are gonna go to the Oregon state fair ehre next weekend… and of course I will have to stop and see the bunny show there. With Monkey’s eye issue and her not being altered yet, theres a slim to no chance I’ll be getting a new bun there however :p

[MimzMum]

My daughter and I didn’t get to go to our fair this year, because the hubby was away and I didn’t want to drive in by myself with no cell phone in case we broke down. Plus I knew what would happen if I saw bunnies in cages, which I was bound to…I would have a lot more bunnies right now.
I am just really glad that my three have warm beds to sleep on, fresh hay all day, fresh water when needed, good treats and lots of “muvins.” Although I think Fiver would probably rather do without having his ears treated once a day, but that’s beside the point. ^_^
 How anyone could even think of putting these sweet creatures in pens and leaving them alone in a cold fairgrounds hall for a week of overnights for judging is beyond me, personally. 0_o

Speaking of big bunnies, I googled french lop the other day and came up with this link. Now THAT’S a hunka big wabbit! 0_o

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-51…bucks.html

[luvmybunny]

We went to our local fair last week and I just feel awful for those bunnies. Some were very well kept and had nice big cages and lots of food, water and hay, where others had litle food and/or no hay. I wanted to bring all of them home immediately! I don’t think I will go next year, I just cannot tolorate situations like that….poor animals

[skibunny8503]

Oh wow that is one big bunny!!  I weighted Sandy today, she’s 4 months old and she’s already 4.2 lbs!  Archie is 4.3 and Sandy is almost 5.  I think Sandy is going to get rather big by the time she’s fully grown.  

Gracie was an abused rabbit, her previous owners were “breeders” I think and were trying to breed her with an angora but turned out the other bun was a girl so they got rid of her.  She was in one of those little cages.  I look at her and couldn’t imagine her being in that size of a cage!  Especially when she’s begging to run around from her “bunny mansion”…but she’s a diva   She’s forgotten about the past and thinks she’s queen of the house haha!  

I knew what I was going to see and what I will see next week but I can’t help myself but go see the bunnies.  I know we’d never be able to keep another one but if I did “accidently” buy a bunny I’d probably bring it to the shelter to go to a loving home.    

[jerseygirl]

We have a state fair of sorts coming up by the weekend here too. I’ve always avoided these as too many people but this year I actually took the time to read the guide. They have rabbit agility on one of the days that could be interesting.

Ski, you mentioned a fan by one of the bunnies cages. I was reading up last night on heating & cooling tips and discovered a fan alone does not make any difference to rabbits. It should be directed right onto them anyway. Reason being they can’t sweat so whereas a fan can cool us down because the air flows over moisture(sweat) it does nothing for them. I just never considered this before! You can use fans for them but just direct it onto a wet sheet or something so the air cools by passing through that.

Mimz, thanks for posting the link. That was like looking at a big version of Rumball! Right down to the funny dark lines on the body. I think the dwarf lop we have here is dwarfed version of french lop and now I can definately say that is so in Rumballs case!

[Monkeybun]

jersey, I use a fan with a big bowl of ice behind it on my Monkeybun when its hot out, so she has the cool air pulled off the ice flowing over her. She LOVES it.

[skibunny8503]

Posted By jerseygirl on 08/30/2009 09:53 PM

We have a state fair of sorts coming up by the weekend here too. I’ve always avoided these as too many people but this year I actually took the time to read the guide. They have rabbit agility on one of the days that could be interesting.

Ski, you mentioned a fan by one of the bunnies cages. I was reading up last night on heating & cooling tips and discovered a fan alone does not make any difference to rabbits. It should be directed right onto them anyway. Reason being they can’t sweat so whereas a fan can cool us down because the air flows over moisture(sweat) it does nothing for them. I just never considered this before! You can use fans for them but just direct it onto a wet sheet or something so the air cools by passing through that.

Mimz, thanks for posting the link. That was like looking at a big version of Rumball! Right down to the funny dark lines on the body. I think the dwarf lop we have here is dwarfed version of french lop and now I can definately say that is so in Rumballs case!

 

I did not know that Jers!  It was a little fan attached to the cage…well at least they tried I guess.  I did like that some of the cages had this rubber mat on the floor to help their feet.  Some of their feet were so yellow, I wanted to take them out and wash their feet  

How old and big is Rumball?  I wonder if Sandy is the same….

[Elrohwen]

Aww, that sounds so sad! I went to a local fair this weekend too, but it was very small and the rabbit show was for pet rabbits of any breed (not sure how they judged them against each other though … the winning rabbits looked just as healthy and pretty as the non-winners). Most were nethies, but there were two amazing mini-lops with the prettiest coloring (one tri-color, one black vienna marked with blue eyes). They were all very well taken care of (most were in big dog crates their owners brought from home) and the owners seemed to be spending a lot of time explaining bunny care to the kids who were crowded around. There were only about 10 bunnies at the whole fair, and I’m not sure if any were for sale (I figured I was better off not knowing if they were for sale or not)

I’m sorry your fair is not very nice to the bunnies. I kind of don’t want to go to a bigger fair because I’d be too sad about the mistreatment and want to take them all home.

[Barbie]

MM that IS a big bunnY! Doesnt sound like he’s on the best diet though…. and it’s too bad that that poor diet is being publicized, other people who don’t k now rabbits and read that will assume that that’s what rabbits are supposed to eat.. At least he’s getting some veggies.

And the 18-month-old, who is not yet fully matured, is still growing, fuelled by a diet of hay, carrots, asparagus – and his favourite, digestive biscuits.

Owner Colin Dunigan, from Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, said: “When I first got him I could hold him in the palms of both my hands.

“Every day he just kept getting bigger and bigger. I thought he would stop, but he hasn’t so far.”

In a single day he will eat three whole carrots, half a broccoli, a couple of asparagus tips, some wholemeal bread and a handful of biscuits.

 

When I see rabbits at the fair, it always makes me want one. Some of them are soooo pretty – not that the other bunnies, aren’t

EDIT: Oops, for some reason the first time I read the article about the big bun, I missed the part where they say he gets fed hay. Nevermind.

[Deleted User]

Posted By skibunny8503 on 08/30/2009 07:40 AM

I think you really don’t realize the crulty of it until you actually own a house rabbit.  All the kids were like “Look at the bunnies!  Can I have one?” (fortunately the parent lied to the kid and said they weren’t for sale), it kind of bugged me.  One of the black rexes was pacing back and forth it’s 2×2 cage wanting 

This bothers me, too, that many time people will accept this wrong way of keeping rabbits as the norm. As if, just because it’s easy and it’s done far and wide, it’s okay. Like a dog on a 3-foot chain. People see it, but they accept it saying “when I grew up we did it this way.” This is twice sad for the animals in the care of such people because this inadequate way of keeping them is passed on to continue.

[skibunny8503]

I whole heartedly agree with that!  And when I was younger and went to the fair it didn’t even faze me about the size of the cage (it did bother me that the cages were not as clean though).  And even in the old rabbit books that I have when I researched getting a rabbit (when I was 11) and it had the wire cages and feeding them just pellets and a lot of other stuff that is wrong today.  The woman at the shelter says she goes to the library to look up rabbit books just for fun and they still have those kinds of books there.    I’ll probably be at the fair this Saturday.

[Deleted User]

Those books, yes, they have done a disservice to rabbits.

[MimzMum]

Jerz, I didn’t know that about fans either *looks sadly askance at her ionizer fan that she thought was doing the bunnies a world of good all summer*

Of course, it may be there not for cooling, but to circulate the stinky air in the housing areas. They often keep other animals, like goats and cavies, in the same area as the rabbits…bunnies don’t smell, but other animals might.
Either way, it’s just not right to do this to rabbits. They need to be seen more as house pets and companions than just livestock. Don’t get me wrong, I think things like the Westminster dog shows are great to spread the word about unusual breeds of dogs and stuff, and they sure do look fancy and fine trotting around the ring, but I can’t stand those kinds of things either. Animals are NOT trophies!
Kind of OT, but I just got sick to my stomach hearing about an abuse case of a Rottweiler up here whose drunken owner bashed it’s teeth in for soiling the carpet (probably needed to go and the owner wasn’t available cause he was on a bender). This guy gets a year in jail for his crime. (Testimony by roommate nabbed him.) I bet he’s out in a few weeks or days. But it just goes to show that so many people don’t see animals with any proper respect or consideration.

The heck with dog shows and fairs and whatnot…I say we all get together and tote our bunnies to a convention getaway where we can all relax with them together and get them pampered at the hotel salons and stuff! ^_^ Now THAT would be a rabbit show!

[jerseygirl]

*Shivers* That poor dog – grrrrrrrr!

MM, Your fan would be improving air quality so all is not lost. I should find where I read that about fans and verify. Don’t want to spread mistruths.  Edit: Here’s where I read it. http://www.bunnybunch.org/Summer_is_a_Kill…nimals.pdf

[Monkeybun]

MM, not sure my Monkey would enjoy being “pampered” as she hates beign touched, but I know I sure would enjoy it! If I put on a pair of bunny ears, do you think I could pass myself off as a bunny?

[skibunny8503]

Went to the fair today.  The bunny building was soo crowded, I was surprised!  But the fair was pretty crowded since the concert was tonight.  It wasn’t too hot this week so that was good.  They had these really pretty brown rexes and there were some jersey woolies.  I never saw a jersey woolie up close and thought they were pretty cute but I would have cut some of their fur…you only saw their little noses wiggling.  There cages were pretty clean, all wire bottom cage and just pellets and water.  A lot of the rabbits that were for sale were already sold.  I just wonder if these are inpulse buyers and they go and buy these rabbits not knowing how long they live, how to take care of them, they don’t have any supplies, but they just see this cute thing.  There were all these kids that I cringed when I saw them putting their arms in the cage when there was a sign stating not to pet them because they might bite.  I figured after awhile they probably do get agitated and might jump at someone.  There were these guys behind us which I let go infront of us because if I did I would have smacked them for their rude remarks and idiotic comments to the rabbits   I felt so sad for those buns and couldn’t stand for all those people to be in there.  I was just thinking “If they only knew!”.  My heart went out with to all of the bunnies.   There was one bun and I’m not sure but I think it wasn’t for sale but it was a holland lop I beieve and his teeth weren’t right.  It looked like he had an under bite the poor thing!  If he was for sale I would have been tempted to buy him but I don’t have the money to help him with his teeth.  He probably just needed a simple trimming of the bottom teeth  

I’m sure we will be seeing more bunnies up for adoption that were bought as a impulse buy from the fair….

[Monkeybun]

There were so many bunnies I would have loved to take home at our fair today, I saw this little broken mini lop with a spot by his nose that was just to die for, wanted to take him that second. But.. no carrier, no cage, and a Monkey with an eye problem. Not a good mix lol.

[skibunny8503]

I know for our fair that I think they have to stay there until labor day (last day of fair).  I know what you mean monkey!  There was this little holland lop that was absolutely adorable!  It was for sale but already sold.  I know we wouldn’t be able to get another one right now with 3 but maybe in the future we’ll rescue a fair bunny.

[LittlePuffyTail]

The only fairs I have ever been to did not include rabbits which I am thankful for. Just reading about your fair experiences angers and upsets me. There are so many people without compassion and common sense, it’s unbelievable.

A great idea on how to help educate people at these fairs who are or may become interested in owning these rabbits would be to print out and pass out Rabbit Fact Sheets. I think the House Rabbit Society has some or you could always make your own. It will probably make the fair more enjoyable knowing you have helped the rabbits as best you can by arming the future owners with knowledge.

[skibunny8503]

That’s a good idea and for anyone going to the fairs!  Ours is over today, I didn’t go back since it looked like it was going to rain but maybe next year I’ll remember to do that. 

[Monkeybun]

Yeah, the bunnies at the fair this year were kept in cages the entire time, with wire floors and nothing to jump on to get away from it. Poor little things.

[Barbie]

Oooo! That’s a GREAT idea! Next year, I’ll definitely do that! And make sure you put additional resources for people to check out on the fliers, like the HRS website and this one!

The mention of fliers got me to thinking… when I take Leroy out, I have a lot of people show interest in him and ask to pet him, which is fine (but don’t get me started on the people who don’t ask!!!) I try to educate them about bunnies, but there’s SO much to cover – I tell them that rabbits have to have hay, since I think that is one of the biggest things that people who are new to rabbits or for people who didn’t bother to do their research miss, yet it’s one of the best and most important things for a rabbit’s health and well being. Correct me if I’m wrong, or if there’s a single point that might be more important for me to mention.

So I’m going to type up some fliers with important bunny care facts, and keep them in my purse. Then when someone asks me about Leroy, I’ll whip one out and give it to them!!! Also, I’m going to stop in at my local pet stores and see if they’ll let me drop off some fliers to post in their small animal/rabbit section.

I’ll start a thread when I do this and let you all know how it goes!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Barbie, that’s great!!!

[jerseygirl]

I saw on a website yesterday little wire floor bases for cages. Called Royal show cage floor bases or something like that. Had me thinking perhaps it’s just the convenience for show settings that they’re on wire floors but that they aren’t on them 24-7 at home. And that maybe there is certain guidelines they have to follow with having animals there. Like size of cage, “hygienic” style so poop doesn’t soil the ground or tables etc. Unfortunately, it’s the unimformed show-goers that see the wire flooring and think that’s the standard housing so set that up if they purchase a bunny.

[Author]

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