A former Playboy model and well-known bunny breeder offered $1,300 for the return of her world-record-holding bunny, which was stolen over the weekend from its Worcestershire home.
"A very sad day. Guinness world record Darius has been stolen from his home," tweeted the UK's Annette Edwards of her 10-year-old Continental Rabbit, which at 4-feet-4-inches long holds the Guinness World Record for the longest rabbit.
A very sad day. Guinness world record Darius has been stolen from his home. The police are doing there best to find out who has taken him. There is a reward of a £1,000. Darius is to old to breed now. So please bring him back.
— Annette Edwards (@maycats56) April 11, 2021
"The police are doing [their] best to find out who has taken him. There is a reward of a £1,000 ($1,300)," Edwards added.
Authorities believe the Continental Giant rabbit was stolen from its enclosure in the garden of the property of its owners overnight on Saturday. The bunny burglars' are yet to be identified.
The incident is a heartbreaking blow for the 68-year-old mother of 10 and former glamor model, who has held the world record since 2008 with four of her animals.
Although Darius currently holds the title of colossal cottontail, his offspring, Lewis and Daisy May, who are both over 4 feet tall, are set to dethrone him.
Darius, who weighs 35 pounds, is now too old to breed. But his plus-size offspring once sold for nearly £250 ($350).
Raising such a massive hare is no easy task. Edwards spends about £5,000 ($7,000) a year to feed her colossal bunnies the carrots and apples they need to stay so big. She claims that the key to breeding them big is to ensure that the parents are large and do not interbreed.
Experts believe the Continental Giant is one of the oldest and largest rabbit breeds, dating back to the middle of the 16th century. Many of these rabbits have descended from the Belgian Flemish Giant.
Still, they also have a common ancestor with other breeds like the Belgian Hare. However, the first standards for Continental Giant Rabbits were not published until 1893.
Continental Giant rabbits were imported to the United States from Europe and the United Kingdom in the late 1800s to increase the number of rabbits used for meat. As a result, giant rabbit breeds began to appear at small livestock shows. Since they were naturally docile, they became pet rabbits as well.
The two types of Continental Giant Rabbits are--White Continental Giant Rabbit and the Colored Continental Giant Rabbit.
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