atlas the continental giant rabbit
Atlas lounging in his new summerhouse Scottish SPCA

Atlas, the giant rabbit who gained worldwide fame in February 2016, has finally found a new home. The huge bunny had been living in the Scottish SPCA rescue centre in Glasgow, but will now be moving south to Ayrshire.

Hundreds of people from around the world offered to take in Atlas after the story of his owner being no longer able to care for him went global. Even glamour model and reality star Katie Price, offered to take in the homeless hopper, tweeting "We will have rabbit if not gone."

Out of all the applicants, the charity chose Jen Hislop, 43, from North Ayrshire. Hislop took in Atlas this weekend.

"I burst into tears when I got the phone call saying I had been chosen to rehome Atlas and I cried again when I collected him." Hislop said, "Animals are just pets to some people but my rabbits are family members."

"I've had two giant rabbits before and currently have a giant cross rex rabbit named Coconut... Atlas is an absolute hoot and doesn't stop running around unless he's crashed out on his massive beanbag."

Though Hislop, a financial fraud investigator, said they're not going to keep his Atlas moniker: "I've decided to change his name to Atilla the Bun Binky Master Jazz Paws, but I think we'll call him Atty for short!"

atlas the giant rabbit with new owner
Atlas with his new owner, Jen Hislop Scottish SPCA

Anna O'Donnell, manager of the Scottish SPCA's rescue centre in Glasgow, said: "We were absolutely overwhelmed by the response to our rehoming appeal for Atlas and we had hundreds of calls and emails from people all over the world, including America, Canada and France."

"It was great there was so much interest in Atlas but we decided to find him a home here in Scotland to avoid a long journey as rabbits are very susceptible to stress."

O'Donnell also went on to say that the charity hopes the story will consider the many other rabbits that need rescuing for shelters: "We hope some of the people in Scotland who showed an interest in Atlas but were unsuccessful will consider one of our many other rescue rabbits as we have lots who are in need of loving owners."

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