VOLUNTEERS at the RSPCA are disgusted after thieves stole equipment for homeless rabbits from a padlocked yard behind their store in Gorse Hill.

Three second-hand hutches, each worth £150 when new, plus a collapsible rabbit run, were taken from behind the charity’s shop in Cricklade Road between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Alison Troop, the fundraising co-ordinator for RSPCA North Wiltshire, said the crime not only cost money but also means the branch has less capacity for rabbits at Easter – a time when more unwanted rabbits, bought as seasonal presents, get handed over.

Now the branch is calling on anyone who saw the crime or has seen the large rabbit hutches on sale at car boot sales or the auction website Ebay to contact the police.

She said: “I think it’s disgusting. The fact that we have lost them in the first place and we have to pay around £400 to replace this equipment is bad enough.

“But it is worse because we have always got a waiting list of animals to come into the branch and now we are down three places for boarding rabbits.

Alison, who already fosters seven rabbits at her home in Park North, planned to use the equipment to take on three more. She was storing it in the yard while works takes place in her garden.

The crime is thought to have taken place between about 5pm on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday.

She believes the thieves drove a van along an alleyway behind the shop, climbed over a 6ft metal gate and lifted the equipment back over into the van.

She said: “These people must have had quite a big van or made a couple of trips because these hutches are quite large.

“They are about 5ft long by 2ft deep and they weigh a ton. Someone wouldn’t have been able to chuck them over the fence they would need two, possibly three, people.”

“Ideally we want these back. We don’t want to pay out the money to replace them but probably we are going to have to.”

Anyone with information can call Wiltshire Police on 0845 408 7000.