City slaps magician with $579 fee over his bunny, leaving him with a bill no illusion can erase

This bill isn’t disappearing.

A children’s magician in the central England town of Derby said he was blindsided with a $579 bill from his local council — all because his rabbit appears in shows.

Stuart Brown, 60, known on stage as Magic Stuart, told reporters he had never had to pay for bringing out his bunny, Snowy, in more than 15 years of entertaining.

That changed last week when Derby City Council phoned him to say he now needed a license.

“I was shocked, to be honest. I’d never been charged a penny for using rabbits before,” Brown told Derby Telegraph.

“It just seems incredibly excessive, but my main gripe is that I’m being put in the same category as those with much larger animals, such as an animal menagerie.”

The city listed Snowy under its “keeping and training animals for exhibition” category, triggering the $579 fee for three years. Renewals cost $443.

Brown insisted Snowy isn’t trained and is barely used in his act.

“He isn’t trained at all. He is just a very tame rabbit I bring out to greet the kids,” Brown said.

“I just bring him out for 10 minutes at the end sometimes. He is maybe out for 20 minutes each month, at most. When the council told me it was more than $500, I nearly dropped the phone.”

The council’s fee list sets annual charges at $1,515 for dog breeders with more than 11 females, $928 for pet sellers and over $1,350 for horse operators.

Keeping dangerous wild animals runs $1,005 a year.

Brown, laid off from Toyota two decades ago, turned a hobby into a career performing at schools, parties and charity events. He said Snowy brings comfort to sick children and joy to audiences.

“I perform at a lot of events for charity and I try to bring joy to young children who need it the most,” he said.

“Some of these children have life-limiting illnesses, and Snowy is just another thing that brings them joy.”

Brown said he worries the expense will squeeze his one-man business.

“Such an expense can be damaging to small businesses, and I don’t even charge for a lot of these charities,” he said.

The Derby City Council defended the fee, citing animal welfare regulations which took effect in October 2018.

“A license has been required for the keeping or training of animals for exhibition since October 1, 2018 … and the fees associated with this are in line with other local authorities across the country,” a council spokesperson told Derby Telegraph.

Brown has yet to pay. He has been filling out the six-page application but said it doesn’t fit his case.

“It asks me what type of animal I’ll be training, and I put none — because he’s untrained. Another one asks if it will be used for TV, theater, circus, animal encounters, and birds of prey, but it doesn’t fit any of those categories. What am I supposed to do?”

He said he’ll submit the paperwork with an appeal letter attached.

The showdown leaves the future of Snowy’s cameos in doubt — and Brown waiting to see whether his magic act can continue without a hefty bill hanging over it.