The Make Mine Chocolate! team are delighted to report the first annual Make Mine Chocolate! Easter Amnesty has been a resounding success!

Held during the two week period over Easter, the Amnesty is designed to help reduce the many rabbits bought on impulse as a result of the ‘cute fluffy Easter bunny’ syndrome and the ever-powerful child pester power. We all know too well that many have the perception that rabbits are cheap, low maintenance pets and this helps considerably to their impulse appeal.

The scale of the impulse problem has sadly been confirmed by the data gathered in the Make Mine Chocolate! Rescue survey – a staggering 40% of rabbits entering rescue are surrendered within the first 6 months, and with nearly 60% of rabbits surrendered to rescue being bought in the spring, the scale of the problem is all too clear....especially when it has been reported that 35,000 rabbits can pass through rescue every year.

In The Beginning ... The First Amnesty

This year the Amnesty was run on a pilot scale with only a few shops taking part. This was to ensure we had the right support in place for the retailers who were willing to sacrifice potential sales, as well as assessing whether the Amnesty could even be achievable.

We are happy to report the shops involved were delighted to take part (and needed no bribery!); in addition, they actually invested both a significant amount of time and money in ensuring the Amnesty could be a success. Here’s a brief report from two shops involved:

Pet Fayre - Lower Early, Reading.

“ We were delighted to be involved in the Make Mine Chocolate! Amnesty” said owner Janet Whiting. “We run a busy shop in the heart of the local community and we work very hard to ensure potential new rabbit owners have all the facts before they decide to buy. We even offer a follow-up service to ensure all is going well. The campaign gave us a great opportunity to talk rabbit welfare to all our customers, and needless to say the chocolate bunnies we gave away instead of selling real bunnies proved to be very popular!”.