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A dog with the head of a hare is sometimes born.
—Ulisse Aldrovandi†
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Claims that hybrids can be produced from this highly disparate cross require confirmation from a testable specimen.
Dog-rabbit hybrids are very rarely reported. Indeed, there seems to be but a single, brief notice on record, and even that single alleged hybrid died soon after birth. Such a cross would, of course, be extremely distant and no picture was provided. So this cross is poorly documented indeed.
It is, however, true that numerous videos on YouTube do show small dogs mating with rabbits, which at least demonstrates that the requisite mating occurs with some frequency. The reported inviability of the hybrid is, however, consistent with a distant cross, since the hybrids from such crosses do seem to be more frequently inviable than those from close crosses.
Among domestic animals rabbits and dogs are both among the most promiscuous in their choice of mate. Indeed, both will attempt to mate even with various types of birds, as documented in YouTube videos. So it is not surprising, in itself, that the two would choose to mate.
At any rate, the following notice is the only report of such a hybrid that extensive search has thus far revealed. It appeared inThe Burrowa News (Dec. 16, 1932, p. 5), a newspaper published in Boorowa, New South Wales, Australia:
An affection between a half-bred fox terrier and a thorough bred female Angora rabbit led to the birth of a peculiar little creature, half dog and half rabbit, according to the owner of the animals, Mr. Victor Morehead, well-known business man of Minnamurra Avenue, Earlwood.
The freak died, however, a few hours afterwards and Mr. Morehead has preserved it.
More like a tiny puppy than a rabbit, it is black and white and has rabbit paws, legs and ears, but a dog-like head, tail and body.
Mr. Morehead said it was impossible for anyone to have played a joke on him, and there had been no other rabbits near the mother rabbit for more than 12 months.
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).
† Monstrorum Historia (1642, p. 444). Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin: "Quandoque canis cum capite leporino oriatur."