Flemish Giant Attacks Jack Hanna

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TreasuredFriend

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March 24, 2010

Jerry's adopter told me of the Jack Hanna episode on G'Morning America. Her husband saw it.

Donald Deane wrote a reply on AOL. television. com -- you have to google on the keywords noted in the description line to pull up the video. Rabbit Attacks Jack Hanna on Good Morning America [ video is viewable ] on Inside TV.

I lent my experience about rabbits as beelermom. This is sad to think the reporters relegate rabbits to purely farm animals, and Jack Hanna says at age eight he didn't know what he was doing. (LOL)

Why are rabbits and this beautiful flemish giant so misunderstood?

My friend also noted the way the rabbit was carried into the studio, not very well.

Hope our companions won't always be designated as objects.





 
I just watched the video of the 'attack'. Personally, I think that Jack is not a very calm person to begin with. So with the way he handled the rabbit to show the bun's kicking capabilities, along with his'nervous' personality, heprobably upset the poor little bunner. Poor bun was probably happier exploring the studio anyhow. ;)

Not a very good example of the endearing qualities many rabbits really do have.

myheart
 
myheart, slavetoabunny Patti, JadeIcing Alicia, Liz from Gainesville Rabbit Rescue, kherrmann, cheryl from Australia, krsbunny (Kathy R. Smith) -- ? naturestee - ?

** GMA needs to have you ladies on the show, to educate on rabbits! **


 
I volunteered at a school some years back with Mercy and during our lunch break some of the other presenters had worked with Jack Hanna and said he was "full of himself." It was a great lunch with many interesting people with interests from alpacas to reptiles and everything in between... I learned a lot in that 45 minutes and know I am a perpetual student.

Nothing like a rabbit to remind you of your place in this world... my Checkered Giants, Holland Lops... and my other pets (horses, dogs, cats, fish and a corn snake) educate me every day and I am a willing to learn student, as I am not afraid to say "I don't know it all."

Denise
 
'Tis helpful to know what you posted Denise. His demeanor in handling the flemish immediately turned me off. The bun musta had some sharp nails, or teeth to tear such a rip.

I wrote to GMA in feedback section and suggested Marie Mead (book author) at www.celebratingrabbits.com and Kathy Smith (krsbunny), member here.

Wish I could get the opportunity to hold and trance that very same flemish giant Jack Hanna used as his "example"... Silver boy, would love to hold you! See if you'd chunk out at me.

Should they ever respond, I'm sending them to Liz and Patti! :wave:

:inlove:


 
Spring moments with Baby Animals (continued).

Jack Hanna's Easter publicity with Peter Jack Rabbit.

Here's an expanded version:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Pets/video/bears-boars-rabbits-10188281

[ Bears and Boars and Rabbits Oh My!]

Little Esther is good to see, and the flemish (territorial) female w/dewlap did an OK-thing by nipping JH after the handling.

... "You just don't have a rabbit as a pet is what the bottom story is."

JH flunked on this one.

Wanna add, it was good to read the comments on the [ Inside TV ] video page section with write-up by Donald Deane.

Cheers to those who stepped up to inform and educate!

:yes:


 
Wow he did look a little insane although maybe parents saw that and won't buy there four year old a bunny for easter.


It was not a good rep of bunnies but maybe it stop a few parents this year.

Kat
 
Just because someone is on TV does not mean they are an "expert"... bear with me for a moment... climbing on the soap box to share my humble two cents...

Going off the thread a moment... in 2003 my dog tore out my MCL in a collision and I was hostage on the couch in early May while the first doctor misdiagnosed a severe grade III tear right off the bone... and I was watching a LOT of TV... including Animal Planet shows and going through physical therapy that failed. The PA supervising me yelled at me after nine weeks and said "I have never,in 20 years, had an MCL not heal. You are doing something wrong!" I told him, no, maybe you are and got a second opinion. Turns out the MCL was torn clean off the bone and healed hanging like a blind cord... unstable and blowing in the breeze.

I have been involved with horses for, uh, 40 years (yeah, guess that makes me OLD but still a student!!!) and with miniature horses for 20+ years... showed, trained, bred and worked for two of the top breeders in NY state back in the day and even had some of my own minis give me dystocias to solve and training problems to get through (and I still don't know it all and never will).

There was a show called "That's My Baby" and they featured a lady and her daughter and their very pregnant mini mare. Not to fault anyone's training style but riding a heavily pregnant mare and chasing her with a dog to "speed things up" as the lady said right there for the world to hear... including putting a new foal and mom out with a yearling colt (sibling) who chased the new baby in an aggressive fashion (ears back and cocky, aggressive stance of a adolescent male) and factual discrepancies on the AMHA and AMHR breed registries caused me to heat up a bit and call Discovery Channel to whine and complain.

Despite the factual discrepancies (which I read verbatim from my rule books) Discovery personnel said they could not pull the show as "it had been airing for a year." I told them that people watch Discovery and Animal Planet to learn things and providing shoddy horsemanship and questionable horse care was not what I would find a good lesson to learn." I told them I would mail them the data and they could do with it as they wished... they did edit the show a bit but not the glaring error of chasing a pregnant prey animal with a predator or showing the baby getting hung up in a water hose that was around his neck... or riding the heavily pregnant mare at a good clip... my pregnant girls here were on maternity leave for 7 months of the 11 it takes to grow a foal.

I was so fuming mad (and now facing extensive surgery to repair the misdiagnosis on the MCL)that I contacted a lady who was on a different show on AP... vented a bit and the end result was a show on our miniature mare Mercy and her service work in our community. We corrected some of the "discrepancies" and I was in line to be filmed for the same show that had the errors but they went on "hiatus" and they missed the opportunity to see what happens when a mini foal born in a 16 degree Fahrenheit snowstorm is a dwarf and what has to be done to save it. "Connie" will be 6 on April 4th... outliving the life span of many dwarf mini horses along with her more severely affected half brother, celebrating his 6th birthday on Sunday. I gelded the sire and I discontinued my breeding program.

So, my off thread though is this... anyone who "thinks" he or she is an "expert" on animals is misguided. Some people may have more opportunities to interact with animals but animals ALWAYS have lessons to teach us... and I am constantly reminded of that every day I wake up to work with them.

Just my two cents... and sorry for my off thread story but I know I am learning from my rabbits every day, even though I have had rabbits since the early nineties...each day we have a lesson to learn.

Denise
 
I was told once that if anyone professes to be an expert, to run away because they have no idea what they are talking about. Like Denise said, a professional will always tell you they are constantly learning.
 
For someone who has owned 212 rabbits he sure doesn't handle one well. What did he expect when he provoked the rabbit into kicking? Hugs and kisses? At least a few parents might not buy their kids a bunny for Easter this year.
 
bengal77 wrote:
For someone who has owned 212 rabbits he sure doesn't handle one well. What did he expect when he provoked the rabbit into kicking? Hugs and kisses? At least a few parents might not buy their kids a bunny for Easter this year.
:nod

The smell of black bears on JH's shirt woulda made me struggle and nip to get the heck away Too.


 
I don't know. In the video he holds the rabbit up in the air by it's midsection. That goes against everything I've ever read. Of course the rabbit kicked and then nipped/scratched. I'd be ticked off too! But I'm sure the bear cub smell didn't help.
 
I am sure John Hanna's clothes smell like every critter he has ever worked with... lions, tigers and bears... oh my! Add a few reptiles in there and I would be fighting and kicking myself.

Hopefully parents will "Make It Chocolate" this year and there are lots of cute plush stuffed toys that won't mind being relegated to the toybox once the Easter holiday is passed... and they don't need a veterinarian, a cage cleaned or being properly fed and watered AND socialized.

Was glad to see that Flemish give him a kick where it counts... probably didn't help that the helper bringing that rabbit on stage had him around the middle as well...

I can just see what the rabbit was thinking... "Oh man, I am in for it now... all those predators and lights and strange smells and I am gonna be the main course...I'll wait until his guard his down and he is not gripping me so tight... oh crap! He's showing off my middle where the good bits are but I can kick and dig in a few times, a hop, skip and a jumpand I am outta there!"

Denise
 
Wabbitdad12 wrote:
I was told once that if anyone professes to be an expert, to run away because they have no idea what they are talking about. Like Denise said, a professional will always tell you they are constantly learning.

hear, hear!

Also, this clip is disappointing to say the least. Holding the rabbit long, overreacting when it told him to put him down, talking about how they "breed like rabbits", the other unfortunate quotes, talking about an 8 yr old having hundreds of rabbits, not to mention that the bunny looked more than a little overweight, I'm disappointed. Sounds like this guy knows no more about bunnies than the next doofus.
 
I would like to know why he had a rabbit anyway. Rabbits are not 'zoo' animals, so would not be at a zoo. For a guy who works with wild animals, a rabbit is not the animal he would be working with. There are very few reasons I can think of for a rabbit being in a zoo environment, and they are not going to be well handled rabbits.

It is surprising that more animals don't go nuts on him. Bringing a prey animal out after a predator is just stupid. Bring passed from person to person to get on stage, then with the lights, people and cameras, any animal would be scared.

At least s/he got to escape and hide for a bit. I saw him/her hiding behind one of the set plants when the boars where out. If I was there I might have just scooped him up and ran :run:.

Jack didn't know what he was doing as a kid and doesn't know much today either. Spreading misinformation will not gain him any respect. It just makes him look stupid to those who know anything about rabbits. The hosts weren't much help either.
 
This is an email message excerpt received from a friend. She brings up excellent points as all of you RO members have. :) I wish the ABCNews desk would follow-up the Hanna episode, pre-Easter, with an educator (who knows how to handle rabbits, and knows they are loved as companion pets. Also the 3rd most surrendered pet at shelters).

I believe my friend was trying to think of the Continental Giant breed ...


Read on --

Hanna claimed to haveraised rabbits as a kid in Tennessee which explains a lot. Down south, rabbits are traditionally bred for pelts and meat. Most southerners still see them as livestock and so does the US Dept of Ag. We have a couple things to be grateful for: Marinell Harriman & the local HRS chapters raising a national awareness of rabbits as indoor pets and our veterinarians for seeking extra education for exotics. I still think it's hysterical that a rabbit is considered exotic -- a Toucan is exotic, not a domestic rabbit.
Hanna was simply showing his southern roots while wrestling with the Flemish Giant which is not the largest rabbit; another error he made. In Europe, there are 2 breeds of rabbits which have been around for at least a decadethat tip the scales at 35 lbs. or more. Remember the German Farmer and his big boy circling around the internet? That is one of the new breeds -- don't know what it's called but that rabbit is gigantic. That particular male weighed 48 lbs. Another ignorant statement, as you noticed, was his inability to explain a dewlap. Many large breed rabbits have dewlaps, both males and females. My Dexter is part Cinnamon, so he has a dewlap.

8 people gave feedback on the video clip at AOL but with the way the clips bounce around in there, I doubt our carefully worded replies will reach many readers or the dope who wrote the article.
------------------------------------------
We can only dream that ABC news & Good Morning America editors will do something in the future - on national TV airtime. And other networks during prime time viewing will get the word out. Local news stations, newspapers, etc. Marie Mead would be a start! Peter Jack Rabbit being Jack Hanna's "point taken" as Donald Deane on Inside TV wrote, makes us shake our head. I sent suggestion feedback to ABC News editors ~ yet it'll take a hundred people or more before they listen.

Complimenting you all for looking at the videos and adding input! Scritchies to your crew,

 
Googling on the subject [ Rabbit Attacks Jack Hanna on Good Morning America March 24 ] now pulls up Rabbits Online thread (on *our* computer search engine).

Let's hope more individuals will see RO, and think ahead !!
 

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