Abstract
Many Japanese kindergartens keep rabbits for educational purpose. However, the status of rabbit welfare is not satisfactory at some kindergartens. It is assumed that the lack of teachers’ attention and affection toward animals could contribute to their poor welfare. As naming pets is considered an expression of owners’ attention and love toward them, we hypothesize that naming rabbits at kindergartens also expresses teachers’ affection toward them whose welfare is better than rabbits with no name. The research was conducted to study the relationship between naming rabbits at kindergarten and their keeping conditions. Our study showed that keeping conditions of rabbits with name were significantly better than those with no name. Especially, the type of names could be important.
