I operate a closed Rabbitry. This means that I don’t allow you to come to my house, instead we will meet in a public area.
There are many reasons why a breeder might choose to have a closed rabbitry, the following are some of the most common ones.
Health Risks.
This is one of the biggest reasons for having a closed rabbitry. A stranger could easily transmitt viruses or infect a rabbit. Having unknown children and adults in the rabbitry can also be very stressful to does who have kits. This added stress could lead to the loss of a litter.
Liabilty Risks
This is also a big risk. What if the potential buyer has unruly children? They could easily frighten and scare the rabbits plus make a mess in general of the rabbitry. Having a open rabbitry also means that you could be held responsable for any bites, bruises, or scratches the rabbit may give to any visitors.
Buyer Inspections.
This has become more and more of a problem as the rise of Animal Rights Activists has begun. These people will pose as pet buyers, and later file a complaint which could result in the removal of the breeders beloved animals from perfectly healthy conditions or come and steal the rabbits from the breeder. A lot of online resources say that you need to vist the breeders rabbitry, or get photographical proof that the rabbit is living in clean and healthy conditions. This however is not the case as most of the time you can tell from the animals condition if they are being kept in clean/sanitary conditions.
Safety and Privacy Issues
This one is big as not everyone wants people coming on to their private property. The breeder may have kids or live alone and not feel comfortable with strangers coming. They might live in a high risk neighborhood. Most of the people who would be reading this would also not let a random stranger on their property or into their home. You wouldn’t want a stranger coming to your home and saying negative stuff about how you raise your kids, why should it be different for rabbit breeders?
Inconsiderate Buyers
Would you believe that there are some people that take the invitation to your property as a go right ahead signal to open doors, touch rabbits, feed/water rabbits, move stuff around, let out/pick up rabbits, and come back on a later occasion uninvited? Obviously this is not okay, but there are still people out there that do that. Another thing that you have to be careful of is buyers falling in love with the wrong animal. A person who is looking for a pet bunny may all of a sudden want the main show buck. In this case, it’s easier to never let the other rabbits be in the equation.
Most breeders who run a closed rabbitry, are not trying to hide anything, rather they are trying to respect their right to privacy and protect their animals. On the other hand, some open door policy breeders who rabbits live in less than stellar conditions believe that they have nothing wrong with the way they raise their animals.
I hope this page was helpful to explain why some breeders choose to have a closed rabbitry.
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