A North East care home has been left devastated after rabbits meant for vulnerable residents were stolen by "low-life" thieves.
Murton Grange care home in Seaham, saw three of their rabbits and two rabbit hutches stolen on Tuesday, 20 September.
Those rabbits are used in therapy for adults with learning disabilities and autism, and are well-loved by the residents.
Jack Wetherell, 23, support worker at Murton Grange care home, from Horden, said he could not believe people would steal rabbits from a care home.
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He said: “They’re therapy rabbits for our residents, so they might sit with them and stroke them, and sit in the garden with them and watch them.
“We work with vulnerable adults with autism and learning disabilities.
“They do really enjoy it, sitting in the garden, sitting in the sun, watching the rabbits and stroking them.
“They’re really quite upset that someone has been in and stolen them.”
He said the rabbits had been secured on Tuesday evening before 8pm but upon returning in the morning had discovered three were missing and the rest let out.
He said staff were able to recover the other rabbits which had been let out during the theft and all seemed to be fine.
He said: “It’s a little bit of a relief that we’ve still got some remaining, but obviously we do want to know what’s happened to the others.
“It’s quite low, [for] people to stoop that low to steal from a care home.”
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He said the thieves unscrewed the hutches from the care home’s fence and made off without anyone hearing them.
Mr Wetherell said they have yet to receive any more information despite sharing the story on social media and reporting the incident to police.
Durham police said they are investigating the theft of three rabbits and two wooden hutches from the area.
They said the intruders are believed to have entered the grounds of the property at some point between 8pm on Tuesday, 20 September and 8am on Wednesday, 21 September and taken the animals.
The rabbits included one grey male, one black female and one brown female, which were taken along with a wooden double hutch and a light brown wooden rabbit run.
Murton Grange is rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission and is run by Swanton Care.
It has been running for nearly 12 years and supports 10 vulnerable adults with autism and learning disabilities.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Durham Constabulary on 101, quoting incident 165 of September 21.
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