This version took effect on 28th September 2026.
Who We Are
Beloved Rabbits is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC049128) and Scotland's only registered charity dedicated to rabbit rescue and welfare. We run The Hoppy Hub rescue centre in Kirkintilloch, which East Dunbartonshire Council licenses as Animal Welfare Establishment 25/AWE/01.
The charity is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. That means our Board of Trustees decides how and why we use your information, and the charity answers to you and to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for doing so lawfully.
This policy covers belovedrabbits.org, our adoption, rehoming, volunteering and fundraising activity, and the ways you contact us by email, phone, social media or in person.
Beloved Rabbits Welfare Services CIC runs belovedrabbits.co.uk, including the Rabbit Shop, bonding, grooming and welfare services. The CIC is a separate organisation with its own privacy policy, and it controls the information you give it on that site.
Contacting Us About Your Information
- Post: Data Protection, Beloved Rabbits, 46 Eastside, Kirkintilloch, G66 1QH
- Email: info@belovedrabbits.org
- Phone: 0141 280 3272
- ICO registration number: C1554628
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as the law does not require one for a charity of our size and activity. A named trustee holds responsibility for data protection and reads everything sent to the addresses above.
Information We Collect
We collect the information you give us through our forms, appointments and conversations, and a small amount of technical information from your visit to the website. We ask only for what we need to look after the rabbits and the people involved with them.
| When you | We collect |
|---|---|
| Apply to adopt | Name, address, contact details, household members and their ages, other animals, housing type and space for rabbits, landlord permission where you rent, your vet, and your experience with rabbits. We also keep notes from home checks, adoption appointments and post-adoption welfare checks. |
| Ask us to rehome a rabbit, or join the Rehoming Assistance Programme | Name, address, contact details, your reasons for rehoming, and details and photographs of your rabbits, including their health and vet history. |
| Volunteer, foster or join the Board | Name, date of birth, address, contact details, emergency contact, availability, experience, and for some roles your PVG scheme membership status. For volunteers under 16, we also record the consent of a parent or guardian. Foster carers also give us details of their home set-up. |
| Donate or fundraise | Name, contact details and donation history, and your Gift Aid declaration where you make one. Card payments go straight to JustGiving or our payment provider, and the charity never sees or stores your full card details. |
| Book an appointment or adoption event | Name, contact details, the appointment you booked and any notes you add. |
| Create an account on the website | Username, email address and password (stored in encrypted form), plus your appointment history. |
| Sign up to our newsletter | Email address, your name if you give it, and whether you open our emails and click their links. |
| Contact us or report a welfare concern | Your name and contact details, what you tell us, and any photographs you send. You can report a welfare concern without giving your name. |
| Visit the website | IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, and the cookies described below. |
Some of what you tell us may reveal information about your health, for example when you explain why you can no longer care for your rabbits, or tell us about access needs for a volunteering role. We use it only for the reason you shared it, and we limit who in the charity can read it.
How We Use Your Information
UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use of your information. The table sets out the basis we rely on for each purpose.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Assessing adoption applications, carrying out home checks, completing adoption agreements and following up on each rabbit's welfare | Our legitimate interest in making sure each rabbit goes to a safe, suitable home. The adoption agreement itself is a contract between you and the charity. |
| Taking rabbits into our care and running the Rehoming Assistance Programme | Legitimate interests, and the steps you ask us to take before we accept your rabbits. |
| Keeping records of every rabbit we take in and rehome, including who we received it from and who adopted it | Legal obligation under our animal welfare establishment licence. |
| Recruiting, supporting and keeping safe our volunteers, foster carers and trustees | Legitimate interests in running the charity safely. For regulated roles, legal obligation under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. |
| Processing donations and claiming Gift Aid | Legitimate interests, and legal obligation for Gift Aid records HMRC requires us to keep. |
| Managing appointments, adoption events and website accounts | Legitimate interests, or the steps you ask us to take when you book. |
| Sending our newsletter and fundraising emails | Your consent. You can withdraw it with the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us. |
| Answering enquiries and acting on welfare concerns | Legitimate interests in responding to you and protecting rabbits at risk. |
| Keeping the website secure and working | Legitimate interests. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our purpose against your privacy and are satisfied the use is one you would reasonably expect. You can ask us for details of that assessment.
We will not sell your information or swap it with other charities for their fundraising. We do not make decisions about you using automated processes alone. A person from our Adoption Team reviews every application.
Young Volunteers and PVG Checks
Our people include volunteers from the age of 12. A parent or guardian gives consent for any volunteer under 16, and we keep their contact details alongside the young person's record so we can reach them if we need to.
In Scotland, a young person aged 12 or over is presumed to understand their own data protection rights and can exercise them directly. A parent or guardian can also contact us on behalf of a volunteer under 16.
Some roles, including Care Leads, Appointments Managers and the Care Team Manager, require membership of the PVG scheme run by Disclosure Scotland. We record whether you hold membership, your scheme number and the date we checked it. We do not keep copies of your disclosure record. Only the trustee responsible for safeguarding and the volunteering coordinator can see this information.
Who We Share Information With
Our trustees and the volunteers who need your information for their role can see it. For example, the Adoption Team sees adoption applications, and the volunteering coordinator sees volunteer records. Volunteers who handle personal information agree to keep it confidential.
Suppliers Who Work for Us
We use a small number of suppliers to run the charity. They act on our instructions under written terms, and they may not use your information for their own purposes.
| Supplier | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 | Charity email, documents and forms |
| BoldDesk | Helpdesk for enquiries and applications |
| Brevo | Newsletter and supporter emails |
| Ionos & Reput8n | Hosting , digital and website services for belovedrabbits.org |
| Amelia (WordPress booking plugin) | Appointment and adoption event bookings, stored on our own website |
| Paypal | In-person and online card payments |
| Stripe | Online card payments |
| GoCardless | Direct Debit payments |
Organisations That Decide for Themselves
- JustGiving processes donations made through our JustGiving pages under its own privacy policy, and shares your details with us where you agree to that on its checkout.
- HMRC receives the details of Gift Aid donations we claim on.
- Your rabbit's vet or ours may receive details needed to treat a rabbit or transfer its medical history.
- The Scottish SPCA, East Dunbartonshire Council or Police Scotland may receive information where we have a welfare concern about an animal, where our licensing authority inspects our records, or where the law requires us to share it.
Rehoming Assistance Programme
If you join the programme, we advertise your rabbits to people approved to adopt. We share your rabbits' details and photographs, and we manage the adoption on your behalf. We will not give your contact details to an adopter unless you agree.
Beloved Rabbits Welfare Services CIC
The CIC is a separate organisation. We do not pass your information to it unless you ask us to, for example when you request a bonding service for a rabbit you adopted from us.
Where We Store Information and How Long We Keep It
We store most information in the UK or the European Economic Area. Some of our suppliers may process information in the United States. Where that happens, we rely on the UK's adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement to give your information the same protection it has here.
We keep information only for as long as we need it, then delete it or make it anonymous.
| Record | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Completed adoptions and the rabbit's intake record | 6 years after the adoption, to meet our licence conditions and support the rabbit's lifelong welfare |
| Adoption applications that do not go ahead | 12 months after our decision |
| Rehoming requests that do not go ahead | 12 months after the last contact |
| Volunteer, foster carer and trustee records | 2 years after you stop volunteering |
| PVG scheme membership details | Until you leave a role that needs it |
| Donation and Gift Aid records | 6 years after the end of the financial year, as HMRC requires |
| Newsletter subscriptions | Until you unsubscribe |
| General enquiries and welfare reports | 2 years after we close the enquiry |
| Website accounts | Until you ask us to close the account, or after 3 years without a login |
We protect your information with access controls, multi-factor sign-in on charity accounts, encrypted connections to the website, and regular updates to our systems. Volunteers use charity email accounts for charity business. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and report it to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.
Cookies
Cookies are small files the website places on your device. Since February 2026, the law allows us to set cookies for security, site functions and basic visitor statistics without asking first, provided we tell you about them and give you a way to switch statistics off. Any cookie used for advertising or tracking you across other sites needs your consent before we set it.
| Type | What it does | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps you signed in, remembers your bookings, and protects the site from abuse | Needed for the site to work |
| Functional | Remembers settings such as your answers in the volunteer role finder, which stay in your browser and never reach us | You can clear them in your browser |
| Statistics | Counts visits and pages viewed so we can improve the site | You can switch these off in our cookie settings |
| Third-party content | Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and JustGiving may set their own cookies when you use share buttons, embedded posts or donation links | We ask your consent before loading them |
The website also loads fonts from Google, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads. You can block cookies through your browser settings, although parts of the site, such as booking and signing in, will then stop working.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- ask us to delete your information
- ask us to limit how we use it
- object to our use of it where we rely on legitimate interests, and at any time to direct marketing
- ask us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation
- withdraw your consent where we rely on it
Some rights have limits. For example, we cannot delete adoption records our licence requires us to keep, and we will explain if a limit applies to your request.
Contact us using the details at the top of this policy. You do not need to use a form or particular words. We will reply within one month, and we will tell you within that month if a complex request needs up to two months more. There is no charge.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. Send your complaint to the contact details above. We will acknowledge it within 30 days, look into it without delay, keep you informed, and tell you the outcome and how we reached it.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. The ICO will usually expect you to have raised your complaint with us first.
Changes to This Policy
We review this policy each year and whenever we change how we use personal information. We will post the current version on this page with the date it took effect, and we will email supporters on our mailing list about significant changes.