One of my rabbits came from P@H "adoption" centre. However, I wouldn't advise anyone to use this and would encourage people to go to reputable rescue centres instead.
I adopted the rabbit, Gordon, because I saw he was in a very poor state and he was also extremely nervous and hard to handle. I first enquired as to if he had seen a vet as he had very weepy eyes. I was told it was being dealt with and he was fine to be adopted - he had been prescribed some drops and it was "probably just an allergy" :
I knew that most weepy eye problems were caused by bad teeth but they assured me his teeth were fine. I was very concerned about him and worried that if an inexperienced person came in and took him then he would end up dead in a short time.
Well . . to cut a long story short, I took him home and got him to the vets the next day. He had VERY bad dental spurs that were digging into his tongue and he was in such pain that he had stopped eating and was in advanced GI stasis. Anyway, he was on medication and neededf syringe feeding etc for some time, but has thankfully made a full recovery. Without treatment he would have soon died.
I have spoken to the P@H management and written to head office about the situation as I think its terrible that he was allowed to get into this state and nobody noticed or for whatever reason did anything about it.
Unfortunately P@H has not set up this scheme in a way to really benefit the animals. Decent rescue centres will make sure animals are in full health before rehoming and will home check any potential adoptees. All I had to do was walk in, hand over a fiver and sign a form to say I would look after him. In many cases these animals will end up back with ignorant or carelss owners and will be no better off. There's plenty more I could rant on about the conditions they are kept in (glass boxes/no shelter) and the lack of knowledge amoungst the staff (who told me to "scruff" him) and so on but I'll leave it there
