HOPPING-MAD volunteers have set up an appeal to help give rescued rabbits a merry Christmas.

Allison Ford and her five fur-loving friends have rehomed hundreds of unwanted rabbits since they set up Swindon Rabbit Rescue in 2015.

During their free time, Alison, Hayley, Vicky, Maria, Anita and Sian look after five rabbits each with the help of their husbands until the pets are adopted.

The adoption process can take at least a month per rabbit as the volunteers ensure that the rabbits are healthy, vaccinated and neutered before they find a new owner.

These checks cost around £100 and the adoption fee is £50, so they lose money with each rabbit.

Now they’re asking for generous animal lovers to give boxes of toys, tunnels and treats for their beloved bunnies.

Alison said: “We all work full-time so we don’t get to treat them as much as we’d like to and it would be nice to spoil them a bit this Christmas.

“The response was really good, people made lovely handmade toys and some of the boxes were wrapped like presents which we will open on Christmas day.

“Hutches and hay bales have also been donated, which is amazing, we go through a phenomenal amount of hay.”

Shoeboxes full of donations can be dropped off at the Vets Clinic in Bridgemead.

The group are passionate about the pets and use their knowledge and understanding of rabbits to nurture them and even help them find love.

Alison added: “We’re just a bunch of mad rabbit ladies and we’re in a privileged position where we can do something to help animals we love.

“Some rabbits have come in in an awful condition.

“One had cigarette burns, one had an untreated broken leg which had to be amputated, one had curled overgrown nails, several were overweight because the owners fed them carrots regularly, they’re only supposed to have a little slice as a treat every now and then.

“Rabbits are also social animals so our policy is to never rehome a single rabbit, we always pair them up.

“We have a speed-dating service which helps the owners know that the rabbits get along with each other before they go home with them.

“Some rabbits hop over and act like they’ve been together forever but if they don’t like each other they can be really vicious - two un-neutered males in the same hutch can sometime castrate each other with their teeth.

For more information, visit www.swindonrabbitrescue.org