Fear for rabbits before Tet

While many Asian countries are about to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, animal protection organizations in Asia are warning an inevitable outcome for this animal.

The Vietnamese people call the 2011 lunar year the Year of the Cat (New Cat), but in many other countries in Asia call this year the Rabbit.

AFP said, traders across the Asian continent are witnessing the growing demand of people for rabbits during the Lunar New Year this year - falling on the 3rd February of the calendar.

' Rabbit year is the best time to help rabbits. You can do that by not supporting rabbit trade, the cause of their suffering. Rabbits are not only lovely animals and have fine fur, but they also need a lot of human food, equipment, and care , 'Maggie Chen, a PETA animal rights activist, stated.

In the final days of the Tiger year, Eakmon Prempinitpong - a Thai businessman - said that the number of rabbits he sold through the Internet nearly doubled as customers bought them to give to relatives and lovers.

' Most people buy rabbits as teenagers and students, ' Eakmon said.

The number of rabbits sold in China also increased compared to previous years. The price of each animal ranges from 3 to 39.5 USD depending on the breed.

'Sales of rabbits from January 1 are nearly as high as last year. People like rabbits because they are pretty and look after them easily , 'said a trader at Nanshan pet market, Qingdao City, Shandong Province.

That's what animal rights activists worry about. They said that most people are completely wrong to think that rabbits are easy-to-raise animals.

' Many people buy rabbits due to improvisation and do not fully understand their responsibilities when raising animals at home. The problem becomes more urgent for rabbits because people think that even children can feed them. Many pet stores in Singapore are not provided with enough information about how to care for rabbits. So they often give false information to rabbit breeders for the first time , 'said Jacelyn Heng, chairman of Singapore Rabbit Association.

Thosaporn Anuntakulnatee, a veterinarian from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, agrees with Heng's point.

' Some people do not know how to take care of rabbits. When they no longer want to feed them, they will throw them into the forest or leave them in the temple. Rabbits can reproduce very quickly and we will face a great challenge in trying to control their numbers. The situation becomes more serious if a certain rabbit is an alien animal in a certain area , 'Thosaporn explained.

In the Year of the Rabbit in 1999, the Association of Animal Abuse Prevention (SPCA) in Singapore picked up 625 abandoned home rabbits. The proportion of rabbits thrown out of homes increased by 116% compared to 1998.

SPCA and Singapore Rabbit Association urged people not to buy rabbits just for improvisation.

' Unfortunately, we live in a consuming society. People decided to buy rabbits very quickly when they found them lovely and gentle. Now we just have to fold our arms and wait, hoping that the situation will not be as bad as 12 years ago , 'said Deirdre Moss, SPCA's executive director.

The abandoned owner is not the biggest threat to rabbits in Asia, because they still have a chance to survive. Falling into the hands of new restaurants is a frightening threat. Some restaurants are promoting rabbit meat in the first days of the lunar year.