Rabbits survive being dumped in box next to bins

The female rabbit has been named Flo

Two pet rabbits have survived being dumped in a closed cardboard box next to bins in a supermarket car park.

They were discovered by a woman who went to do some recycling at Tesco in Alfreton, Derbyshire, and noticed the box moving.

Brinsley Animal Rescue, which is looking after the rabbits, now named Flo and Stan, said they would have died if they had not been found on Wednesday.

The rescue centre said it was now full due to huge numbers of unwanted pets and had had to turn away 255 rabbits in 2024.

The male rabbit has been named Stan

"If the rabbits hadn't been found, they would have perished. They couldn't get access to food or anything," said Jon Beresford, who runs the rescue centre in Nottinghamshire.

"They've literally been tossed out and dumped in a box on a very, very cold day.

"Unfortunately, there are too many people dumping domestic pets, including rabbits.

"Domestic rabbits won't last five minutes in the wild."

The rabbits had overgrown nails, which have now been trimmed

Mr Beresford said there had been a "tsunami" of unwanted pets.

"We used to turn away between 500 to 600 pets a year but it's now well over triple that," he said. "Last year we turned away 1,541 pets."

Of these, 255 were rabbits, 598 were cats and 243 were dogs.

Mr Beresford said too many people bought pets without doing proper research, then realised they could not look after them.