A SCHOOLGIRL has been left heartbroken after both her pet rabbits were stolen from her back garden.

Nine-year-old Emily Forrest could not stop crying when she learned that her pet rabbits Sky and Sky’s baby Snowball had been taken from the hutch in her back garden in Northwick, Worcester.

The Northwick Manor Primary School pupil only discovered the theft when she went to check on her pets on Mother’s Day.

She was so upset, she did not want to tell her mother because she knew it would spoil her day.

Emily’s mum Jan Forrest said: “When Emily got outside, she found the hutch open and the rabbits gone.

“We heard her sobbing in the kitchen and she didn’t want to come and tell me what had happened because she thought it would upset me and spoil Mother’s Day. She was still heartbroken on Monday when she told her friends.”

Emily’s brother Jamie, aged 15, is also gutted as he bred Sky himself and wants to become a vet.

His mum added: “He’s just bereft – he bred Sky and we have had her since she was a baby. She is such a lovely-natured rabbit.”

The family has suffered the loss of five pets since Christmas – the two rabbits, another rabbit that was eaten by a fox and two guinea pigs which died through illness.

The stolen rabbits are described as show quality lionhead rabbits with long, pure white fur. The mum, aged four, has blue eyes and the baby, aged six weeks, is an albino with red eyes.

The breed is small compared to other domestic breeds and they have small ears.

Mrs Forrest says it is a mystery how an intruder would have known about the rabbits as the garden is enclosed by a high fence and she is certain the rabbits could not have escaped. No-one from South Worcestershire police was available to comment about the incident.