Bunnies hop about in Denham Town

Upon hearing Gewana Reid's voice, a colony of rabbits tried to escape their pens as they rushed in her direction. Their tummies full from eating meals of pellets and lettuce leaves, the furry animals are in a playful mood. One of them even hopped into her arms and wiggled about, much to Reid's delight.

"These are my little babies. The children in the community love to play with them, especially when I let them out in the yard. They are frisky and loveable," she said.

Reid, 24, is the proud owner of 33 rabbits which share space in a tenement yard in Denham Town, west Kingston. She ventured into rabbit rearing two years ago after her babyfather was imprisoned and she needed an additional income to provide for her two children.

"He had a shop and I had lost the income from that. I am just a paralegal so my pay isn't much, and I just know that I had to turn to something that was quick. Rabbits will have baby in a month or so, and it is a quick turnover. I sell them in the community so that is how I get a bit of income to support my kids," she said.

The community's children, she said, are her biggest supporters, stating that they would constantly nag their parents to purchase a pair of the bunnies. Reid has never tasted rabbit's meat or even butchered one of the animals, but said she anticipates eating it jerked some day.

Reid's small enterprise, Reid-Allen Rabbit Rearing, is being supported by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund under phase two of the Integrated Community Development Project. She was among eight small business owners in the community who benefited from equipment, valued at $2.8 million, towards improving their businesses.

"They gave me a digital scale, fridge and rabbit bowls. They will also have workshops on how to make our businesses more profitable and register those that are yet to be registered," she said.

"I am hoping that the business will grow so I can sell to restaurants and so on, but persons are always in awe whenever they visit and see the rabbits. They just don't expect them to see them being bred in the inner city," she said.

Rearing rabbits isn't just all fun and games for the paralegal, and her mother, Sonia Barrett, who cares for their four-legged friends when she is at work. She said they are oftentimes stolen from their pens by the community's rats and cats, which would then feast on them.

"I have lost about 12 in total," she said while pointing to a few who managed to survive the rat attacks, but lost their ears in the process.

Reid is hoping to expand her business, but says that space is a major issue at this time. She said she is hoping to secure a better property on which to raise them, and may even add a few goats to her farm. Her mother also dreams of an expansion. She has two ducks and is convinced she can make a business out of it.