Lee A. Nevills began raising rabbits
as a 4-H member back in the 1970's in continuation of a family tradition
going back to her paternal great-grandfather's childhood rabbitry
in Germany. Lee's grandfather and father raised breeds similar to
New Zealand Whites, Flemish Giants and Champagne D'Argents as meat
rabbits in the Great Depression years to feed their family. Following
the meat rabbit tradition, it was only natural for Lee to start out
with New Zealand Whites. It was not long before she got bored with
the big white meat rabbits, and moved on to several different breeds
with more interesting colors, such as Dutch and Harlequin. She joined
the ARBA in 1978 along with her mother Carol Schneegas, and their
ARBA show career began.
Over the years, the two raised many Best In Show rabbits and ARBA
Registered Grand Champions in breeds such as Havana, Netherland Dwarf,
Florida White, Holland Lop, Silver, Standard and Mini-Rex, to name
a few. Lee became a 4-H Leader and was the Secretary-Treasurer for
the National Silver Rabbit Club for a time, and really enjoyed the
unmatched camaraderie with her fellow Silver breeders. Lee also worked
toward her ARBA Registrar's License, but her career as a top sales
agent in the Insurance industry got in the way, and the rabbits fell
by the wayside for a little while.
Now after 30 year's membership in the ARBA, Lee is proud to be a stay-at-home
mom and has established a herd of Lionhead rabbits in several colors.
She also keeps a few Mini-Rex in blue and opal because of their great
temperament and luxurious coats. Son Tye Robert has his own special
Lionhead "Bunny Girls" Lorrie and Gail in black tort. Even
the family breadwinner Larry Nevills is in on the rabbit raising hobby,
although in a limited capacity, with a few black Silver Foxes. (He
also gets to build and put together all the cages and nestboxes, lucky
guy!) He recently made the decision to end a 25+ year career of raising
nationally recognized show quality ADBA registered American Pit Bull
Terriers. To him, raising rabbits pales in comparison to raising dogs,
but he does give his wholehearted support to the family rabbit raising
effort while mulling over which breed of dog to tackle next.
In February, 2008, Lee was granted the 5th ARBA Certificate of Development
for the Lionhead Breed. Her certificate includes the varieties of
Chocolate, Chocolate Tortoise, Lilac, Opal and Seal. Still a loyal
member of the ARBA, she is also a member of NALRC and is currently
a Director of the Sunflower Rabbit Club--the midwestern state's premier
Lionhead rabbit club.
Dilute and agouti colors have been Lee's favorite varieties to work
with throughout her entire rabbit raising career, and she looks forward
to using her knowledge and experience in working with those colors
to perpetuate a strong, uniform, true to type line of show and breeding
quality Lionheads. Along the way, she has met many wonderful people
involved with the Lionhead breed that have helped her build a solid
foundation to work with. She humbly admits that she would not be where
she is today with her herd without the enormous help of those generous
individuals, and is looking forward to the future of this exciting
breed!
