Hop to It: Help Rabbits this Easter

The spring season brings familiar signs of life's renewal―birds building their nests, frogs waking from their winter hibernation, and other wild animals rearing their newborns. As you might imagine, our Cape Wildlife Center in Massachusetts―one of our three wildlife rehabilitation centers―is busy in springtime caring for young raccoons, squirrels, and other injured or orphaned creatures, like these baby cottontail rabbits.

At the same time, animal shelters across the country face a different kind of bunny problem: rabbits bought as Easter gifts, then discarded when children lose interest or families realize they're not prepared to care for the animals. After cats and dogs, rabbits are the most often surrendered to shelters. Sadly, some people mistakenly release pet rabbits into the wild, not realizing that they're a different species from their wild cousins and can't survive on their own.

Domestic rabbits can be cute, smart, and sociable pets. It's also important to remember that they can live 10 years or more and need fresh vegetables daily, plenty of space to hop around, veterinary care, toys, and other creature comforts. Pet bunnies are easily stressed and don't do well living outdoors, so they need a large cage or habitat in your home. They must be handled gently and will be happier with another bunny companion.

Like any pet, rabbits require a serious commitment, just like bringing a dog or a cat into your home. Please spread the word to family and friends and other members of the community about not adding to the influx of abandoned bunnies coming into shelters this spring. Baby rabbits (and chicks) don't belong in Easter baskets. And if you've done your research and are ready to bring a bunny (or two) into your family, visit your local animal shelter or rabbit rescue to find a long-eared friend.

This entry was originally posted on Pacelle's blog, A Humane Nation.

 

Follow Wayne Pacelle on Twitter: www.twitter.com/humanesociety

Comments

[Paulette LincolnBaker]

08:30 PM on 04/16/2012

As an advocate for rabbits and volunteer director for RabbitWise, Inc., I wish to address a few of the points some people here have posted regarding rabbits. Rabbits in fact do require fresh veggies--by this, we mean greens and herbs--in order to absorb nutrients they do not get just from hay and pellets. We do NOT/NOT advocate rabbits living outdoors in hutches for many reasons. First, hutches do not provide protection from heat and cold, both of which can harm rabbits. Second, rabbits tucked away in hutches away from their human families get lonely and depressed. They are highly social animals and need companionship. Why adopt a rabbit if you have no real intention of spending time with this animal? Finally, to Mr. Bradshaw, your comment about gassing the rabbits illustrates what a sad person you are--clearly you have never known the companionship and love of a rabbit or you would not be able to so glibly make such a cruel and smartass remark. I wish to publicly thank Mr. Pacelle for addressing the Easter problem we in rabbit rescue confront every year. Rabbits are NOT good pets for children and they are high maintenance. Think before you adopt any animal and do your research. Visit www.rabbitwise.org and learn about rabbits before bringing one home. Thank you, Paulette Lincoln-Baker, Volunteer Director, RabbitWise, Inc.

[Marcella Covault]

05:51 PM on 04/07/2012

When I was a kid, they were still giving away chicks, ducks, and sometimes bunnies at stores before Easter. We enjoyed them when they were young, raised them in a pen the backyard, and when they were young adults, we "recycled", i.e., my mother slaughtered them and we had them for dinner. That is what you do with animals that are traditionally raised for people to eat. Bunnies can make reasonably good pets, but they are first and foremost, raised for meat and fur. If a meat animal is raised as a pet and is a good pet, by all means, enjoy it and let it enjoy the interaction with humans also. However, trying to "save" all the bunnies for pets is just not practical or even sensible.Those who want to "rescue" breeder rabbits, spay/neuter them, and put them in homes have really lost touch with reality, IMO, or they are an "animal rights" devotee (i.e., anti-societal/anti-human, anti-animal-use).

[SVL9]

04:30 PM on 04/16/2012

Trying to "save" all bunnies that are raised as pets (dwarf bunnies for example are impractical as meat or fur, hence not all bunnies are raised for meat and fur) is obtainable by the mathematics we learned in elementary school. We bred/created them for this purpose, so we should take care of them with this purpose in mind.

Please keep in mind in some countries dogs and cats are raised for meat. What makes a rabbit have fewer rights than a dog or a cat?

[bestuvall]

11:43 AM on 04/07/2012

wow Wayne is now a rabbit "expert'.. first of all rabbits do NOT need "fresh vegetables every day".. and most rabbits do very well in hutches out of doors. second of all they make great pets..even with children if they (both children and rabbits) are SUPERVISED

[SVL9]

04:23 PM on 04/16/2012

FYI life expectancy of an outdoor rabbit is half that of an indoor rabbit.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

10:43 PM on 04/06/2012

I've known at least three people missing a joint on a forefinger due to a rabbit when they were toddlers, if you have small children a rabbit is not a good fit.

[Giles Bradshaw]

06:58 PM on 04/06/2012

gas the rabbits and spend the money you save on nature conservation