John with Hazel, a New Zealand White. Photo Wayne Martin

“We’re mad as hatters,” says John Watson, of his and wife Kerstin’s obsession with white rabbits.

However, John’s New Zealand Whites are named for characters in The Beverly Hillbillies TV show rather than Alice in Wonderland. “I’ll never part with Jed, Jethro and Miss Jane, but I sold Ellie Mae to a South Island breeder.”

A good, keen rabbit hunter when young, John had a change of heart when Kerstin started breeding Angoras. Watching the does prepare their nests with fur plucked from under their chins, and seeing the bald, blind kits grow, turned him into “a softie.”

John’s choice of New Zealand Whites is a reminder of the Clumber spaniels he bred for 20 years in the UK. Both dogs and rabbits are white, and among the largest of their species. The spaniels weigh up to 40 kilos; the rabbits, fortunately about five kilos, still sizeable in rabbit terms.

Despite the name, the New Zealand White breed originated in the United States where it was specifically designed for meat.

In an ironic twist, this California-derived breed was named for a place where the rabbit has long been regarded as a curse.

Even more ironically, the illegally introduced calici virus put paid to what had been a burgeoning rabbit meat industry in this country. Not that John would ever contemplate eating his friends.

“They may all look the same,” he says, “but they all have their own personalities; some shy, some extrovert. The bucks are more affectionate and make better pets than does, which are more territorial.”

John tries to replicate a warren situation for his charges while maintaining a controlled breeding programme, by arranging cages so that the animals can socialise through the wire without leading to unwanted pregnancies. He finds it easy to keep them healthy as long as they have clean, dry, warm and draught-free conditions.