Seeing red over the pink rabbits

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_method=full%26objectid=18628640%26siteid=50061-name_page.html#story_continue

Feb 16 2007

by Michelle Fiddler, Liverpool Echo michellefiddler@liverpoolecho.co.uk

PET lovers in Merseyside are being urged to spare their blushes by refusing to buy the latest fashion accessory – a pink rabbit. The new breed, known as Orkney Pinks, is believed to have come about initially as a result of a mix-up in food supplements.

OCPRS, owners of the international rights to the unusual strain, then set about refining the breeding programme. Yesterday the new-look bunnies, which are on sale for between £549 and £700, were officially revealed to the public at a launch event at the Marriot Hotel in Speke.

Outraged pet lovers today said they were horrified at plans to sell the rabbits as the next “must have” celebrity pet. Cllr Bernie Turner, Liverpool’s executive member for the environment said: “Animals should not be pink. They should be left well alone. Rabbits are not easy to look after."

“It is not something you can buy and change your mind. It is a commitment and I don’t think this is appropriate. What will happen next? Dying babies green? I would urge people not to buy them.”

Sam O’Connor, 41, a company director from Wirral, said: “I am totally horrified. Rabbits are very, very difficult animals to look after as pets. These poor things are being paraded around."

“People could be paying upwards of £500 each for these rabbits for them to be someone’s fashion accessory for five minutes." “Rabbits are the most abandoned pets in the country. It is horrendous.”

A spokeswoman for The British Rabbit Council, said: “The Orkney Pink is not a recognised breed - they have just been fed food that has turned them pink. “The people who are doing this have no association with the British Rabbit Council and we have asked that they remove anything that suggests they are affiliated to us." “But people are daft enough to go along with it. At the end of the day they are still going to have a rabbit which needs looking after.”

Andrea Winders, spokeswoman for OCPRS, said: “Any welfare of the rabbits is our top priority. The rabbits come first. I know it looks like a gimmick but everything is considered and people who buy them are told how to care for them. Our prime concern is the re-homing of them."

“Because they are pink they are always going to be seen as a fashion item but the rabbits are our first priority.”