HARRISBURG, Pa. — If you hop over to Harrisburg for the conclusion of the 2023 Pennsylvania Farm Show this weekend, you may notice a bevy of livestock of all different shapes and sizes throughout the facility.
That includes rabbits, many of which were bred for show.
- Alivia Giles, 16, a Hellertown resident, won best opposite in breed with one of her rabbits at the PA Farm Show
- Trainwreck, the rabbit, is an English Angora chocolate junior buck
- The farm show ends on Jan. 14 at 5 p.m.
On the farm show's first day, Jan. 5, the show rabbits competed. Siblings were pitted against each other — both in terms of the rabbits and their handlers.
One such human sibling group was the Giles family, led by Alivia Giles, 16, the oldest sister.
Alivia's rabbit won Best Opposite of Breed.
Alivia breeds and shows rabbits, and has been doing so for four years. She got her first rabbit at age 12, when she saw an ad for a free English Angora to a loving 4-H home.
By then, she already taking care of dairy cows as part of Lehigh County 4-H, an agricultural education program, so she decided to take on rabbits, as well.
“I've always loved small animals,” Alivia said. “And when I found an English Angora for free, I was like, 'I want that.' ”
Grooming a winner
Starting with that free bunny and breeding him, Alivia now has 26 rabbits — including the one she showed at the farm show — living in a barn on her parents’ property.
She spoke of giving some offspring away to her siblings and to strangers.
“I keep them and sell them," Alivia said. "I got the ones with the full body. That's how I decide. So the full color. So either a white one, a brown one or a black one. That's the only colors I have so far. It has to be all the same color.”
Named Trainwreck because “he's a little bit of a mess right now,” he was the only rabbit of Alicia's that was eligible, as many of her other rabbits have white noses, and the breed standard for English Angoras is that they must all be one color.
So Alivia had him compete.
Her younger siblings also showed in the English Angora category, but Alivia’s Trainwreck took home best opposite in breed. Best opposite means it was the best of the sex and the first place best in breed was the opposite sex.
A lot of work
Alivia said she would recommend rabbits as pets — as long as people are willing to put in the work to take care of them.
“Rabbits are very sweet but they take a lot of work,” she said. “And you have to be careful with them.”
At the moment Alivia said that, Trainwreck tried to jump out of her arms.
“Yeah, their favorite activity is to die,” she said, laughing.
Alivia said she spends about three hours each day taking care of them: feeding them, giving them water, cleaning out their cages, and doing a lot of brushing (on which, she admits, she falls behind).
“With the wool breeds, you have to brush them," she said. "So I do, once a week. For some rabbits, I'm supposed to be doing once a day, and I have to start doing that.”
Beyond her love of rabbits, Alivia said she enjoys the community that showing has afforded her.
“There's a lot of friends and it's just a fun time to get together with a bunch of other rabbit-loving people, show rabbits and then show people how we take care of them and educate people on rabbits.”Alivia Giles, 16-year-old show rabbit breeder and handler
Alivia said that when she grows up, she wants to work in agriculture, potentially as a veterinarian.
The farm show is open for its final hours on Friday, Jan. 13, until 9 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 14, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
