I think I'm the only person who gets annoyed by this, but whatever.
Basically, in a Facebook group called “Clueless Owners,” every time the conversation turns to rabbit care, it’s a total mess.
Why? Because, in short, it’s basically a full-blown battle between breeders and pet owners—more about which side can boost their ego more by calling the other “stupid and uneducated” than about actually providing useful advice on pet/animal care.
No one cites sources; no one wants to back things up with data from verified studies. Almost everything is “this care method works because it worked for me” or “this care method is bad because I didn’t like it.” Seriously, the number of times I have to read someone stating something as an absolute truth and universal rule based on subjective experiences really pisses me off.
It’s not just about things like the never-ending debate over whether wire cages are good or not, or whether rabbits prefer to roam freely or be kept in enclosures.
There are also people actively LYING about how “rabbits aren’t social animals because they establish territories and fight over them.” Okay, domestication alters animals’ behaviors compared to their wild counterparts. But domestic rabbits are European rabbits, and by definition, they ARE social. The fact that they live in colonial groups makes them social animals, and the fact that you can see colonies of abandoned domestic/feral rabbits already tells you something about how they do seek each other out even if it's just “to reproduce” (which isn't 100% true, because even in nature, rabbits are known to form bonds with other rabbits).
That’s true if you’re talking about cottontail rabbits and hares (which we couldn’t even domesticate for that very reason). But not for rabbits whose early domestication involved keeping them in artificial burrows in large groups, because that’s their nature. There are many people who keep them in colonial settings as breeders, and it works for them. Why do you think that is? (I know that this thing also have their "cons" too, but like if the animals can live like this means something)
Now, rabbits actually have a very real and complex hierarchical system and territorial boundaries that go far beyond simply putting two rabbits together and expecting them to become friends. And of course, they have different personalities.
I agree that it’s possible to have just one pet rabbit if you know how to devote your time to it. But please stop lying about their nature as if it were a fact, denying something that is true.
The fact that rabbits are difficult to pair up doesn’t negate a basic aspect of their nature.
It’s a complex issue, blah blah blah. I don’t want to rant anymore. This whole issue of arguments over caring for these animals gives me a headache anyway, because I can never find anything that feels like a satisfactory answer.
Ugh, it’s just so damn annoying.
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