Rabbits on BF ???

[Russethouse]

There was a piece in one of the Sunday papers about a family who tried to take their two pet rabbits on BF and were told that BF would not allow the rabbits on board due to a old French sea faring superstition.........in the end the family had to travel with P&0

If it had been April 1st I wouldn't have believed it !!

Is it really true ?

Gay
http://www.quimperclub.org/

[Frenchie]

That's true
see why at http://www.marin-ok.ch/lapin.htm

MC

[Cerise]

Yes it is true - we travelled with a guinea pig (and dogs and cockatiel) on BF and had a very Fawlty Towers conversation with BF booking office asking whether we sure the said guinea pig was not a rabbit!! As no-one actually inspected any of the animals (or the VERY expensive paperwork) I though we should have just shoved the whole lot in the car without asking any questions.

Maggi

[Darren, Vicky and Amelia]

vicky

Hello

Talk about deja vous!!!

We moved to France 2-1/2 years ago now noe...god that has flown. We too had two house rabbits and a puppy and I was 6 months pregnant, We too were told that due to an old sea tale rabbits were not allowed, after many phone calls to DEFRA, and BA just incase we had to fly them some kind gentleman rang and said he had phoned the ferry company for me and they told him they would accept them if they had a letter from vets to say they were healthy and fit for travel and were up-to-date with jabs, etc. We phoned the ferry company to book tickets and booking in went smoothly..........UNTIL!! we mentioned we have a 7 week old puppy. They told us we were not allowed to take him without a passport, I tried to explain that he was too young as couldn't have all the jabs, no! I was told, DEFRA had told them, so on the phone I go again and speak to DEFRA, no probs they said just fill the paperwok in for export, did this and no probs. We arrived at the ferry and were worried just incase they all were not allowed on, the ticket lady was more interested in telling her daughter of on the phone, no-one ever checked the animals this side or in the UK.
Tell your frind to go through to bookings and at the end moention the rabbits, I am sure it will be OK. Give me a shout if not, and I will find all my paperwork and see if that helps.......By the way our ferry never sunk nor did we have probs getting here.

[Will]

I obviously missed this before...

It is indeed a superstition at sea that it will bring bad luck to a ship to even mention rabbits. The French seem to take this a bit more seriously than many others; supposedly because live rabbits used to be carried for food on board old wooden French naval vessels, and one rabbit managed to eat its way through the hull planks and sink the ship. The link in Frenchie's post below is to a Swiss site which gives a rather different story, about rabbits eating ropes.

Will (50)
Forum moderator