Belgian Hare

Belgian Hare is a rabbit breed, not a true hare despite its name, developed in Belgium in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through selective breeding of wild-colored rabbits to produce a slender, long-legged, arch-backed animal with a reddish-brown coat resembling a wild hare in appearance and posture. Imported to England in the 1870s and then to the United States in the 1880s, the breed set off a speculative breeding craze known as the Belgian Hare boom around the turn of the twentieth century, when animals sold for very high prices before the market collapsed. The boom is credited with establishing organized rabbit breeding and showing as a hobby in the United States, laying groundwork for the American Rabbit Breeders Association and the wider modern rabbit fancy. The breed itself became much rarer after the boom ended, and it remains a recognized but uncommon show breed today.