Mother and daughter in fear of their lives after violent murder of rock and roll dancing rabbit

A mother and daughter are living in fear after intruders broke into their home in the Paralowie suburb of Adelaide, Australia, and killed their pet rabbit in a callous attack. June Dyer says she fears further attacks after her nine-year old daughter found their pet bunny Roxy crumpled with a broken neck and paws in the back yard of her home last Friday. “We came home and I said to my daughter, we’ve got some spare strawberries, go give some to Roxy, and next minute I just heard a deathly scream, she just called out ‘Mum, come out here’,” Ms Dyer said.

“I came out and saw what had happened and started crying and said straight away ‘oh no, we’re next’, that’s what came straight to my mind. My daughter went straight into a rage because it was her baby, Roxy was the first pet that she’s had in her life.” Ms Dyer said her daughter would take Roxy for walks to school on a lead and the one-year old bunny was popular among members of the rock and roll club she was a member of. “We taught it to dance, you put the music on and it would dance around your feet, it was such an intelligent little thing,” she said.



“He was the only rabbit I know in Adelaide that walked on a lead and danced to rock and roll music.” Ms Dyer said Roxy had been trained to use a kitty-litter tray and slept on her daughter’s bed some nights. She said her daughter and other students had undergone counselling over the devastating attack. “We are scared for our lives, my daughter has to sleep in my bed and she has been diagnosed as suffering depression,” she said. Ms Dyer said she had received death threats and harassing phone calls over the past year but was unsure of who would go to such lengths to target her.

“It must be someone that’s very sick in their mind, because I work in mental health I would have to say that person is delusional and totally dangerous, if you’re going to kill an innocent rabbit, what is next? Why would you do that to an innocent animal, it’s just totally wrong.” Ms Dyer and her daughter buried Roxy in a small grave in their back yard, and said they were planning on adopting another baby rabbit to train. She said her home had been the subject of vandal attacks in recent months, but was shocked that anyone would go to such violent lengths to target her. A spokesman for SA Police said investigations into the matter were continuing and urged anyone with information them.