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History of the Mini Lop Rabbit
The Historical journey of the Mini Lop begins several hundred years ago.
The actual domestication of
rabbits can be credited to the monks of central Europe. Within monastery
walls, wild rabbits were tamed and selective breeding took place. It is
believed that Lop-Eared rabbits were one of the results of these selective
breeding programs. Records show rabbits being exchanged by monasteries in
Germany and France as early as 1194.
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“Rabbit Fanciers” John
Frederick Herring (mid-1800’s)
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The popularity of Lop-Eared
Rabbits further spread throughout Germany when soldiers returning from the
Franco-Prussian War brought the rabbits home when returning from France in
1870. These early rabbits were often referred to
as the "Patagonian" or "Andalusian" rabbits.
In Germany, as was the case in
France, focus was placed on meat production. Over time, this eventually
resulted in large German Lop which became popular throughout Europe.
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Charles Darwin commented
extensively on “Large Lop—Eared Rabbits” in “The Variation of
Animals and Plants under Domestication” first published in 1869.
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While Rabbits were exhibited in shows as early as the 1840’s, they
became increasingly popular over the next hundred years, with many new
breeds being developed during this time.
By the 1950’s German fanciers were having a difficult time finding
enough space to keep the really large varieties and thus set about creating
an intermediate lop – somewhere between the French and Dwarf varieties. The
resulting breed was the Klien Widder.
The development of Klien Widder was began around 1954 by Erhard
Diener in Saarbrücken,
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“Rabbits” John
Frederick Herring Sr. (1852)
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Germany and was later shown at
exhibition in 1957. It wasn’t until 1964 before the breed was
officially recognized by the “Central Association of German Rabbit Breeder’s”.
In 1972, Bob
Herschbach first saw the Klein Widder at the German National Rabbit Show held
in
Essen,
Germany. He learned that the Klein Widder had been developed out of the
German Big
Lops and their
small Chinchilla. Initially there only were two varieties, White and Agouti.
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“Fancy Rabbits, a Doe with her
Young” John Frederick Herring Sr. (1863)
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The Klein Widder had beautiful heads and good ears. This
was typical of German stock, however, their bodies were long and narrow and
their weight was over eight and half pounds. Only twenty Klien Widders were
thought to exist in Germany at this time, with eleven of them entered at
this show.
Mr. Herschbach brought a trio, consisting of an Agouti
pair and a White doe, home with him to California. He then set about to
producing more "dwarf" lops in other colors. He used a broken
French Lop and a Standard Chinchilla in his first breeding.
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His first litters
were all solid colors with the broken colors coming in the second
generations. Thus
began a long
process of selective breeding, as size reduction takes time and is difficult
to control
because of the
inbreeding.
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The first of the Klien Widder developed by Mr.
Herschbach were shown at the 1974 American Rabbit Breeders Convention in
Ventura, California by Herschbach. He reported they did not create much
interest and he concluded that this was because they still were not small
enough and their name was not appealing. After the convention, he changed
the name of the lops to "Mini Lop" and continued efforts to
improve the breed by giving several pairs to other breeders, and by 1977
gave the sponsorship of the Mini Lop to Herb Dyke.
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Benjamin Herring Jr. “Rabbits” (1863)
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In 1978, Herb
Dyke and Bob Herschbach started a correspondence club with the first officers
being:
President-Herb Dyke, Vice President-Craig Carpenter,
Secretary/Treasurer-Sherry
Rollema, with Bob
Herschbach as their adviser. Within a year, they had over 500 members who
contacted the
ARBA with support for the Mini Lop Rabbit.
The Mini Lop was finally, accepted as
a breed at the 1980 ARBA National Convention in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The Mini Lop Rabbit Club of America was founded later that year to
advance and promote
the Mini Lop breed nationally.
The membership of
the MLRCA quickly grew to over a thousand members. Although membership
has declined since
those early days, the MLRCA remains the Oldest and Largest mini Lop Club in
the World.
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