A Swansea politician whose call for rabbit owners to complete a training course was ridiculed across the UK has hit back — insisting the idea came from rabbit charities, and amounts to nothing more than a half-day online course.
Mike Hedges, the Labour and Co-operative Member of the Senedd for Gŵyr Abertawe, was branded “hare-brained” by political opponents after telling the Senedd that people should only be able to own a rabbit “after a short training course where individuals can show they understand the needs of rabbits”.
The call came in the same First Minister’s Questions exchange that saw Mr Hedges push for a ban on tethering horses — along with the microchipping of cats, a ban on keeping primates, an end to the cage breeding of game birds, and a ban on Larsen traps.
A Conservative source told BBC Wales the proposal was “hare-brained”, adding that people would be “hopping mad” Labour saw it as a priority and that Mr Hedges should stop “rabbiting on about bunny licences”. Conservative Senedd member Andrew RT Davies also questioned “the practicality of the kind of training that has been suggested”.
But speaking to That’s TV, Mr Hedges said the idea had not come from him at all — but from rabbit charities alarmed at how easily the animals are sold.
He said charities were concerned that a shop would sell someone a rabbit, a hutch and some wire — and then “wish you luck as you take the rabbit home”.
“There’s really a lot of work to be done looking after a rabbit,” he said. “Rabbits are social animals. In Germany you can’t buy a rabbit — you have to buy two rabbits, because rabbits like to be with other rabbits.”
He said prospective owners needed to learn how to feed rabbits, look after them and socialise with them — “and to also know that they’re not moving toys. They don’t like being picked up and held”, unlike cats.
“It’s not a huge request. It’s a half-day online course, which will explain to people what rabbits need,” he said. “If they do that before they buy the rabbit, some people will say ‘I don’t really want a rabbit’. Others will know what they have to do to look after it.”
He added: “We have got to a stage now where we’re quite good — I wouldn’t say very good, but quite good — looking after dogs and cats. But the other animals that we treat as pets, we need to do more on.”
The welfare sector has largely lined up behind him. RSPCA Cymru said rabbits are “among our most forgotten and misunderstood pets” and among the most neglected in the UK — and is calling on the Welsh Government to commit to an “overdue review” of the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Rabbits, which has not been updated since it was published in 2009.
The charity says it has rescued more than 4,000 rabbits from abandonment and mistreatment in just two years.
Welfare charity Hop to Save Rabbits said it was “very encouraged” to see the issue raised in the Senedd and supported “a short rabbit welfare course before acquisition”, saying rabbits can be obtained too easily and with too little understanding of their needs — leading to unsuitable housing, loneliness, mis-sexing, unwanted litters and abandonment.
Closer to home, Nibbles Rodent & Rabbit Rescue, based near Crymych in Pembrokeshire, has launched its Rabbits Left Behind campaign calling for the Welsh rabbit code to be reviewed — pointing out that the codes for dogs, cats and horses have all been updated more recently.
First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth did not commit to the proposal, but told the Senedd that Wales is “a nation of animal lovers” which needs “champions for the welfare and well-being of animals in our Senedd” — adding that legislation “is one route, and one that we will always be open to considering” as part of a new animal health and welfare plan.
Wales’ Greens leader Anthony Slaughter said his party would lend support “wherever there is a case to improve human knowledge around how to best care for a pet” — and Mr Hedges drew hundreds of supportive comments on social media, with rabbit owners saying the animals’ complex needs are widely misunderstood.
For now, there is no plan for compulsory rabbit training in Wales. But the row has reopened a bigger question — whether the country’s 17-year-old rabbit welfare guidance is overdue an update.
