Meet the animal lover who ditched her day job and spent £50k to save over 200 bunnies - who live inside her home.

Paige Hadlow, 26, is celebrating the four-year anniversary of giving rabbits ''a second chance'' at her rescue centre this Easter.

After previously working in a high-street pet shop, she gave it all up in January 2019, after becoming disillusioned about the treatment of the animals they sold on.

Her charity, Clement Rabbit Rescue, is based at her home in Wrexham, North Wales, where she currently lives with 24 rabbits!

Paige, who lives alone besides her furry friends, offers a nationwide service, and regularly travels all over the UK to come to the aid of bunnies.

After making sure they're healthy, she tries to find each animal a suitable forever home with prospective owners going through a strict vetting process.

The rescue centre is entirely funded by Paige, who now works full time in the Veterinary industry in order to plough resources into her passion project.

She is also speaking out to warn consumers off impulse buying pet rabbits for Easter as she says they are so often not able to look after them properly and will often have to be rehomed.

Paige, who has spent up to £8k in one month alone on animal care, said: "Working in a pet shop was eye opening, I was really shocked. "

"If I’m honest, I haven’t been obsessed with Rabbits my whole life, but the way I saw how irresponsibly they can be treated by Pet Shops and owners, I felt I had to step in, so my passion has stemmed from there."

''I just love them so much, they’re all so interesting in their own unique way and are a joy to watch

"Gaining a rabbit’s trust is just the best feeling in the world, they don’t naturally gravitate towards people so knowing that I have that sort of connection with them is really special."

''Contrary to people’s perception, they’re not actually that hectic and are really clean around the house so I’ve never had an issue with any mess.

''My mum is my biggest supporter, she just wants me to be happy

"I’m fortunate enough to be able to lean on her emotionally and financially whenever I need to and that reassurance is something that helps keep me going."

Easter is a busy time of year for the rescue, but Paige does everything she can to spread the right message at this time

Paige said "I don’t tend to rehome any of the rabbits over Easter time just to avoid any impulse buys and anything like that."

"A lot of the time, I do try to educate people as to why I have declined them rather than a straight up no, because you can’t expect everybody to know everything and that’s what the rescue is all about."

"I spend a lot of Easter time on social media trying to spread the right message and educating people."

Paige started working in a pet shop in January 2016 but quickly grew concerned about the welfare of the animals sold there, particularly the rabbits.

After becoming worried at the size of cages they were kept in, she then picked up on how poorly many of the animals were treated.

Paige said: ''The animals there are treated and sold as products and that’s just not right and far from what they deserve.

''I knew I had to do something drastically different to help as many rabbits as possible.''

Eventually, after a year at the pet shop, Paige grew tired and took matters into her own hands.

On 26th March 2017, Paige rescued Bertie, who is a crossbreed, now six, from the shop she worked at.

Bertie, who was just eight-weeks-old at the time, was due to be put down due to him being severely underweight and having bad diarrhoea.

''I begged my manager at the time to let me take him home.

''I wanted to look after him and give him a second chance.

''After just two weeks he was so much better, he was like a different rabbit and they thankfully let me keep him,'' Paige said.

In January 2019, Paige quit her job in the pet shop and started the Clement Rabbit Rescue centre, and was living purely off of her savings in order to channel her entire focus into the rabbits that she was rescuing.

Paige said: "I knew the rescue was what I wanted to do so I started to set up the foundations of the charity in the weeks prior to leaving my job."

"I had a logo made for the rescue by my tattoo artist, which features my two pet rabbits, Bertie and Binkie, six."

"I had a summer house in my garden which I had to have a new roof put on before I could house any bunnies in there"

"I had to paint and decorate it all as well, which my mum, Carla, 52, helped me with, and all in all, it cost me roughly £3500 to launch the rescue and have all the correct equipment and apparatus ready."

"In the first six months, I was fairly busy but it soon died down when the first lockdown was put in place."

"But by the time the lockdown lifted it was a completely different story."

''I just couldn’t stop!

"By the 18 month mark, I had worked with around 80 rabbits!"

"With people going back to work, lots of people ‘didn’t have time’ for a rabbit which I think is a bit of cop out really."

"If it was a dog or a cat, people would put a lot more thought into it and have appropriate arrangements made, but because its a rabbit, people didn’t think twice about getting rid of them."

Since the rescue’s foundation, Paige has worked with over 200 rabbits and counting, and regularly receives updates from their new owners.

Paige explained: "I get lots of pictures of the rabbits I’ve managed to rehome which is really lovely."

"It’s very fulfilling knowing I’ve made a change to the bunnies life and found them a new, loving home."

"Often, I receive messages asking for advice or the odd question, which is perfect, as it shows the owner cares for the welfare of the rabbit just as much as I do."

"I make sure the process is thorough whenever I’m looking to rehome."

"I have an adoption form potential owners have to fill in to gain a better understanding of the potential owner."

"Once I’m happy with this, I do a home inspection, so I travel all around the country doing those as well."

"I make sure the rabbits won’t be kept in a cage or hutch and that they will have a safe and adequately sized space available to them. "

"Rabbits should always have access to at least 60 square feet of space, whether that be indoor or outdoor entirely depends on each bunnies individual characteristics and behaviour."

"I’ll never rehome a rabbit to live alone, I’m happy to rehome in pairs but otherwise, the owner must have another appropriately cared for bunny already living with them as they tend to get lonely very easily."

Despite holding down a full time job in a veterinary surgery, Paige manages to keep up with her duties at home with her day typically starting at quarter to six where she sorts out all of the different litter trays, cleans up any excess hay, and replenishes food and water bowls.

"That sort of thing costs me between £350-400 a month, with the majority of that coming from hay, which I spend £60 a week on!"

"Rabbits love to chew things, so I need to replenish toys quite a lot"

"I’ve had to put a gate on my kitchen because I once had a rabbit chew through my cooker wire!"

"Everything to do with the rescue I do myself, which can be very consuming at times but it’s worth it"

"Anything from running the social media accounts to taking care of the rabbits on a day to day basis - it’s all done by me."

"I went on holiday with my sister, Kacie, 29, at the start of this year to Florida and it was nice to get away for week, but I did miss the rabbits"

"Some of them I had board with another house and others I had stay with my mum while I was away"

Since lockdown, Paige has been busier than ever.

She said: "The worst case I’ve had was in late 2021, when I received a fairly ordinary message from a woman asking me to take her rabbit."

''The owners, who were based just outside London, said that her kids had been messing around with eight-week-old, Hope, who had been in their care for only a few days.

''I quizzed her further until the owner admitted that Hope had been shot with a pellet gun on her back right leg by one of her kids.

"I was shocked, I couldn’t believe what I was reading."

"Almost instantly, I dropped everything and hopped in the car to go and get her."

"It was a really strange handover, I had driven roughly 150 miles without a moment's notice to have Hope handed over to me and then have the door pretty much slammed in my face."

"I instantly took her to have an X-Ray and, as I expected, was told that her tibia was shattered due to the impact of the bullet."

"I was given three options: amputation, euthanasia or have her referred to an exotic specialist."

"I chose the latter; I always consider a rabbit’s quality of life but Euthanasia is an instant no-no."

"At the time, Hope weighed less than a kilogram so surgery wasn’t an option right away, but her leg was stabilised with a splint and was given daily pain medication."

"After a long and challenging process, Hope underwent surgery and made a full recovery."

"Since, she’s been rehomed to someone in the local area and I couldn’t be happier."

"Of course, it’s easy to become emotionally attached, especially given the nature of Hope’s story, but nothing compared to the fulfilment and pride I felt when seeing her thrive in her new, loving home - it’s definitely the most rewarding rescue."

Paige is now thrilled to celebrate nearly four years as the proud owner of her very own rabbit rescue centre.

"I may have to lessen the extent I do it to at some point; the funds are getting harder and harder to come by, but the rescue is my life and I won’t ever stop it completely - I’m too far down the line and I’m totally consumed by it all and I wouldn’t have it any other way."