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LONDON — Missing: Darius, with lengthy floppy ears and measuring a record-breaking four ft. Last observed in rabbit hutch in Stoulton, England.
Police stated they had been searching one of the most international’s biggest rabbits, if no longer the most important, which went missing over the weekend.
“We are appealing for information following the theft of an award-winning rabbit from its home in Stoulton, Worcestershire,” West Mercia Police stated in commentary on Monday. “The rabbit is quite unique in the fact it is 4ft in size.”
Darius, who was a 2010 Guinness international list holder for his large period, used to be stolen from a lawn enclosure in central England on Saturday evening.
Darius’ proprietor, Annette Edwards, wrote on Twitter that police had been running exhausting to search out her prize-winning pet and that she had introduced a praise of one,000 kilos ($1,400) for his protected go back.
“A very sad day,” she stated. “Darius is too old to breed now. So please bring him back.”
Edwards in an interview with the TODAY display in 2010 stated her huge pet — a Continental Giant rabbit — used to be pleasant, had an enormous urge for food and loved lazing round on furnishings.
The pair used to excursion the rustic at the side of proprietor Edwards donning a Jessica Rabbit taste outfit to blow their own horns gigantic Darius.
At the time, she stated the celebrity bunny used to be insured for $1.6 million, had an agent and travelled with a bodyguard.
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Darius’ disappearance comes amid a spike in pet robbery in England all over the coronavirus pandemic.
The charity DogLost stated it noticed stories of thefts upward push through 170 p.c within the final yr, from 172 canine in 2019 to 465 in 2020.
Pet detective Jacob Lloyd, head of investigations at Animal Protection Services, which prosecutes arranged animal cruelty, informed NBC News the “pandemic prices” for all animals had surged in Britain — with the common price ticket for a pet canine leaping from about 700 kilos ($1,000) to a few,500 kilos ($five,000) within the final yr.
“It’s completely disproportionate to what we would normally see,” Lloyd stated. “Opportunists and organized criminals have taken advantage in the rise of prices, and dog and other animal thefts have gone up.”
With folks in England locked down for far of the yr, Lloyd stated the will for “companionship” whilst spending extra time at house had resulted in the surge in call for.
In Darius’ high-profile case a possible “ulterior motive” may be at stake, pet detective Lloyd added, most probably the paintings of arranged criminals who knew his worth.
The U.Okay.’s policing Minister Kit Malthouse known as animal robbery a “vile crime,” in a commentary previous this yr.
“Let me be clear — pet theft is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment and it must be confronted wherever it occurs,” he added.
Singer Lady Gaga’s two pet canine, Koji and Gustav, made world headlines after they had been in short stolen and returned in February, amid her public pleas and a $500,000 praise.
Her French bulldogs had been taken in a violent theft in Hollywood, during which the singer’s 30-year-old canine walker used to be shot and sustained non-life-threatening accidents.
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