Monthly Archives: February 2009

This post is a revisit to my post regarding culling. I believe many people found it hard to digest and accept what was being introduced. Some may have also jumped into conclusion at some point.

Before I go in the details of my post, there was a question that goes “Why breed when culling is needed?” I believe many people would agree that if there is a need to cull, breeders should stop breeding. I hope this post can shed some light in an attempt to answer the above question.

I have given much thought to this topic but I have not take to killing any of my rabbits. Let’s talk about QUALITY. I am not sure about you but to a certain extend, the NO KILL mentality has caused overpopulation of pets. We are compassionate beings without a doubt but like the title of this post, let’s put everything into perspective.

Do you know that majority of us rabbit owners is keeping or has kept culled rabbits? The word cull can be use very loosely. A pet quality rabbit can also be considered as a cull. If you do not mind sub standard or the quality of rabbits than this post may not be relevant to you. But do keep in mind that we all deserve better things. Being a purebreed rabbit breeder, I emphasize and ensure that my rabbits reflect the standard of perfection laid down by ARBA. They may not be in perfect standard but we all do try as breeders to ensure the rabbits we produce get nearer each time we breed.

Alright, let’s first put ourselves in this NO KILL mentality. So none of the breeders are culling their rabbits. Just imagine how many low quality rabbit we would have around us. Maybe that’s what you want but that’s definitely not what I want.

Somehow, the general public is telling me that they love sub standard rabbits. I do not blame them because a rabbit is just a rabbit after all. They all look the same because many people do not know that there is such thing called BREED STANDARDS.

So with the NO KILLING mentality, I pass down some of my pet quality to some new owners. Some end up breeding their rabbits and inject more sub standard rabbits in the market. What do you think? Everyone’s happy with their sub standard rabbits. No issue. And then the entire market snowballs into a giant burrow with all sub standard rabbits. Well, isn’t that what you’re asking for? And that’s what you are going to get.

In case I have forgotten, many of us are self proclaimed animal rights activist. But as of late, I feel that there should be less of protests and more of actual work being done to save animals instead. A lot of these activist just can’t walk the talk if you know what I mean. If you are such a righteous person, why not take in all the rabbits that could not be sold in the pet stores or farm? I am sure it is not in your capacity to do that right? And of course, you would like to have that rabbit with certain color or features. See, that’s not that genuine and sincere isn’t it? We have to accept that we cannot have the best of both worlds. It is either quality or junk.

And now, let us switch our minds to breeders that cull their rabbits. Unless you are still living in the stone age, you should know that the world is all about the survival of the fittest. The weakest links are always eliminated. We so love the TV series Survivor because we love seeing who outlast others. The weakest Zebra in the Savannah will always be eaten by the Lions. That is the same with culling. We remove the weakest links in our herd. A good breeder will never ever pass something bad to another breeder or owner. He/she will ensure at his/her end that he/she will do anything it takes to get rid of the bad and weak. If he/she does not do that, just imagine rabbits with genetic problems being passed on to others and that trait will eventually replicate far and wide in the speed of light (it only takes below 5 seconds for a pair of rabbits to mate). Although I have not yet decided if to cull my rabbits or not, I believe it is the best thing to do if we want to ensure that only good stuff are being passed down.

Just to quote an article well written by a renown ARBA judge Chris Zemny, “The most important thing one must realize when breeding Holland Lops is that CULLING is a must” that could be found on the very first line of her article contributed for HLRSC official website. Click here for the article. Culling is not something created by TLR. It is a practice observed by many renown breeders in the world.

Let’s make this entire post simple. Just tell me if you want me to pass you junk or something of superior quality. Here’s a poll for you. Now we need to walk the talk. Just tell me if you like having junks or you think you deserve better.

Maybe you want to tell me that we could live with junks as long as there is no killings. But cull not necessary means kill. Let’s put everything into perspective.