Hopping mad rabbit gets therapy
ALONE and unwanted, this fluffy bunny looked in need of a good cuddle when he arrived at the animal shelter.
But staff were soon running scared of Jack the rabbit after he began attacking anyone who dared to come near him.
In a week-long reign of terror, he bit ten people beguiled by his cuteness – even chasing after some of his victims and leaving one elderly woman in hospital.
Jack proved to be so savage that a pet psychologist had to be called in to fathom out what had made him so hopping mad.
The six-month-old miniature lop-eared rabbit was brought into Maria’s Animal Shelter in Probus, Cornwall, after failing to make the grade as a show animal. The charity’s founder Maria Mulkeen, 47, said she had never encountered such a ferocious bunny. ‘He looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth but he’s a very mixed up rabbit,’ she said. ‘One lady who volunteers at the shelter put down a carrot for him and he latched on to her hand and wouldn’t let go.
‘A few days ago she had to go to hospital, was given antibiotics and she now has a scar.’
Yesterday Carol Valvona, a member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors who was called in to help, said Jack’s ‘issues’ may have arisen from feelings of vulnerability linked to rabbits being ‘prey animals’.
She said: ‘If owners go in over their heads to stroke them and they can’t get away, rabbits may view them as a predator and bite them.’
Jack is now with volunteer Sandra McIlduff, who has also been bitten. She said: ‘He is getting better. He is still feisty. However, I still have all my fingers.’