All over Australia, companion animals are abandoned and surrendered in large numbers. Have you ever wondered how we can put a stop to this? I have heard many suggestions, e.g. "pet shops and online sites should not be allowed to sell pets", "breeders should be more regulated", "rescues and shelters should receive more funding", and while all of that would help, it would not stop the need to rescue companion pets.

After considering all the relevant factors and players and how they interact I have come up with an idea, which I have also submitted as proposal for the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy. I am sharing this idea in this blog post and invite you to share your thoughts:

Strategy: Link Microchip to Desex-voucher to enforce responsible buying and selling of pets

Scope: This proposal focuses on rabbits as companion animals, and how to reduce the number of pet rabbits that need to be rescued from cruelty, neglect or abandonment. However, the idea presented in this paper can also be applied to other pets.

Problem: Thousands of pet rabbits need to be rescued from cruelty, neglect or abandonment each year, but only very few can be rescued. As example, The Rabbit Sanctuary received 1,700 surrender applications in 2023, and could only rescue around 500.

Current state: People can buy rabbits for a very low price, or even get them for free. This gives them the impression that they are cheap starter pets. However, the truth is that adequately providing for a rabbit is quite expensive.

After a few weeks or months, they realise that the rabbit needs to be desexed to stop behavioural issues, and that rabbits need to get vaccinated and health checked every year. The first vet visit will cost around $600-$800. A lot of people are not willing or not able to pay for that. An additional complication is that it is very difficult to identify the sex of a rabbit at a very early age, and very often when people have more than 1 rabbit they end up with unwanted litters.

When people realise they cannot afford the upkeep of the rabbit(s) they purchased they will surrender or abandon them. The same happens with unwanted litters.

Ideal state: People understand at the time of purchasing a rabbit that having a rabbit comes with expenses and that a rabbit needs to be desexed as well as vaccinated and health-checked annually. Those who cannot pay or do not wish to pay for desexing their rabbits and covering ongoing vet costs may realise that they should not have rabbits.

Proposal

Step 1:

• Rabbits get officially recognised as companion pets. As companion pets, rabbits
• can only be sold if they are
• Microchipped
• Vaccinated
• Older than x weeks
• need to be desexed at the age of 4 / 4.5 months or the owner needs a permit to keep an un-desexed rabbit.

When rabbits are recognised as companion pets it means that the rules that apply to e.g. cats also apply to rabbits. BUT: Cats also need to be rescued constantly, so while being recognised as companion pets provides some more protection it doesn't solve the problem entirely. This is where Step 2 comes in.

Step 2:

Let's say a breeder just had a litter and wants to sell the rabbits. They need to take the rabbits to the vet. Dollar amounts below are indicative only.

• Instead of charging the usual fee for a microchip ($50) the vet will charge $200 for the microchip. This includes the $50 for the microchip and $150 for a 'desex voucher'
• This voucher is linked to the microchip number. Any vet who will scan the microchip will see that a 'desex voucher' is linked to the microchip number. In addition, in case the microchip gets damaged, a digital desex voucher will be issued and emailed to the breeder.
• The money itself will be deposited into a 'desex fund' by the vet. (why a fund: to make sure the person purchasing the rabbit can go to any vet who participates in the programme, not just the vet who microchipped the rabbit).
• Optional: To encourage timely desexing, desex vouchers might lose value gradually over time, e.g. after 6 months the value goes down by $10 until it reaches zero. The money that gets 'lost' goes into a bucket to desex stray rabbits.

This means the breeder needs to cover the costs for the microchip ($200) and vaccination ($100), and to make a profit this means they need to sell it for more than $300.

Change Management requirement:

• Breeders (also e.g. including all sellers on gumtree) need to be notified 6 months before the new rules are introduced, so they can decide whether they want to continue selling rabbits). We don't want them to find out late and then kill their rabbits that they have for sale.
• Vets need to be informed and engaged
• The system and processes need to be in place to support the idea.

Change for breeders:

• Breeders need to take rabbits to the vet before they can sell it, and pay for microchipping, the desex voucher and the vaccination.
• Breeders would sell rabbits for a price that covers all vet costs and adds some profit.
• Breeders may choose to stop breeding rabbits if they observe or expect that the demand goes down.
• Breeders would explain to prospective buyers that the purchase price includes a desex voucher, and in doing so they would educate the prospective buyer that desexing is needed.

Change for pet shops:

• Pet shops would sell rabbits for a price that covers the purchase price and adds some profit.
• Pet shops may choose to stop selling rabbits if they observe or expect that the demand goes down.
• Pet shops would receive information about the rabbit's sex as determined by a vet, and as a result are less likely to sell a male/female pair as a same sex pair.

Change for buyers:

• Buyers would understand at the point of purchasing that a rabbit is not a cheap pet, and that it requires desexing.
• Buyers may decide - based on the price - that a rabbit may not be the right pet for them.

Change for vets:

• Vets would get more business as breeders need to book vet visits, and new rabbit owners would ask for their rabbit to get desexed. As they do this, the vet would also educate them about the need of an annual vaccination and health check.

Change for rescues:

• The number of rabbits that need to be rescued goes down.
• The likelihood goes up that a rabbit that gets surrendered to a rescue is already desexed, which reduces the expenses for the rescue.
• The interest for fostering rescue rabbits might go up as some people realise owning a rabbit is expensive but fostering rabbits is for free and provides more flexibility.