Sickening attack on 10-year-old girl's pet rabbit leaves Thumper with no ears

By Daily Mail Reporter

Sickening: Charice White, aged 10, with her pet rabbit Thumper whose ears were hacked off in the attack


A schoolgirl returned home from holiday to find her pet rabbit horrifically injured - after sick thugs chopped four inches off his ears.

Tiny four-old-month Thumper had the tops of his ears hacked off in the cruel attack when yobs snatched him from his hutch.

As these heart-breaking pictures show,Thumper - a Netherlands-cross - was left with bloodied stumps and a cigarette mark branded into the fur on his forehead.

The terrified animal, who was found drenched in blood, went missing for almost 12 hours after the ordeal, traumatised by what he went through.

Thumper had been sleeping in his hutch in the garden of his owner's home in Salterbeck, Workington, in Cumbria, when the attack happened overnight.

Now a police hunt is underway for those responsible, with officers describing the crime as 'horrendous' and urging anyone who knows anything to come forward.

Thumper's loving owner Charice White, aged 10, only discovered her favourite pet's fate when she returned from a school trip to Paris.

Her mum Joanne, who found Thumper two days before, has branded the vandals who attacked him 'sick and disgusting'.

She said: 'We left Thumper in his hutch when I went to bed.

'In the morning both the front and side gate were open and so was the hutch door. There is no way it could have got out of the garden on its own.

'I took my cat and dog to go help find him. We couldn't find him anywhere. But Thumper hopped back into the hutch in the evening.


Ordeal: Four-month-old Thumper was found savagely disfigured and has had to be re-homed in case the cruel attackers return


'When he came back to his hutch I realised his ears had been cut off.

'He had big floppy ears and half of them have been cut off now. When we found him the bleeding was still fresh.

'My cousin came to examine him. She breeds rabbits and has never seen anything like it.

'We took him to the vets. They told us to keep the wounds clean and give him antibiotics.'

Joanne has since asked her cousin to look after him because she is afraid the thugs will return.

Sharon Harkness, Joanne's cousin, who cares for animals and rabbits found abandoned and sick in the area, said Thumper was recovering, but is still is frightened.

She said: 'There's only about an inch left on his ears, the thugs took well over four inches of him, it looks like they've just cut it at the bottom.

'They are cowards I think it's absolutely disgusting, anybody that does anything to animals it is beyond words for me.

'He has been really brave because often rabbits and small animals will die from the stress of something like this, but Thumper is a fighter.'


source: dailymail