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Share A Little Rabbit Reality In Your Easter Greetings This Year

April 01, 2009, 5:21 MT

By Ellen M Gilmore

This year, please be an advocate for the bunnies

By Ellen Gilmore
Best Friends campaign coordinator for First Home Forever Home

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin’ down the . . . what? . . . down the path to abandonment or to the local animal shelter!?! Wait a minute!

Yes, sadly, it is true.

Every year, we are bombarded by images of a happy-go-lucky Easter Bunny who brings baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and toys to the homes of children on the night before Easter.

Bunnies Are the Santa Claus of Easter
The Easter Bunny is to Easter what Santa Claus is to Christmas—and both characters were created hundreds of years ago to inspire good behavior among children while adding a festive, if not commercial, aspect to these popular Christian holidays.

From an animal welfare standpoint, the big difference between the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus is that the Easter Bunny has a living, breathing four-legged counterpart. Which means every year around this time, thousands of bunnies fall victim to well-meaning parents and grandparents who impulsively include a real-live bunny as part of the Easter gift-giving hoopla.

Young Children and Rabbits Can Be a Bad Match
But young children and rabbits are not necessarily a good match, and thousands of rabbits purchased as Easter gifts die annually in animal shelters or are turned loose in the wild where they do not have the ability to survive on their own. Choosing a rabbit as a pet comes with a significant commitment to caring for that animal for life.

Hopper Got Lucky
Recently at Best Friends, Tamara Fleck, a No More Homeless Pets specialist, and Debby Widolf, Best Friends rabbit advocacy and outreach coordinator, assisted in the case of Hopper (pictured above, with Debby).

Hopper is a Flemish Giant, a beautiful breed of bunny that grows to be around 20 lbs. Hopper was at one point an Easter gift to someone’s grandchildren, but as they got older, they didn’t play with Hopper any more and grandma and grandpa were stuck caring for him. They too tired of it and contacted Best Friends for help.

Luckily for Hopper, Best Friends was able to work with the House Rabbit Society chapter in Grand Junction, CO, and they were able to help out. The House Rabbit Society is a national, non-profit animal-welfare organization that rescues rabbits and educates people.

With their help and that of Best Friends, Hopper caught a ride to Colorado and was adopted into a great home. He was one of the lucky ones. For every Hopper, there are thousands of others who don’t make it.

New Best Friends' FIRST HOME FOREVER HOME Campaign
The Best Friends FIRST HOME FOREVER HOME campaign focuses on all aspects of helping people successfully and happily include their pets as members of the family for life.

This year, please be the voice for the bunnies and for the Best Friends First Home Forever Home campaign by educating others about Rabbit Reality!

Here’s How You Can Help

•Please send this page to all your friends by clicking on the link to the right of the picture, above.

•This Easter, consider sponsoring a rabbit through Best Friends.

•Or adopt a stuffed rabbit through the Best Friends partnership with Stuffed Adoptions.

•The “Make Mine Chocolate!™” campaign is to break the cycle of acquisition and relinquishment by educating the public about the responsibilities involved in keeping a companion rabbit before a rabbit is brought home. To learn more click here.

•Help educate others by downloading, printing and posting this flyer. or by writing a letter or email to the media. A sample letter, courtesy of the House Rabbit Society, can be found on the Resources tab of this community in the folder called “Rabbits – How to Help.”

•For more information on living with a rabbit companion, visit the House Rabbit Society website.

•If you decide that you can commit to taking care of a rabbit for life, adopt – don’t shop! Best Friends Adorable Adoptables features 91 adoptable rabbits!

•Visit the Best Friends Rabbits community.

Main photo courtesy of Debby Widolf
Photo of white rabbit by Jennifer Hayes

Comments

Posted April 22, 2009, 4:3 by polarbaher

Trudy60, I basically did the exact same thing on my FB pre-Easter. I promote donating to organizations such as the ASPCA and GreaterGood, and I volunteer at a local SPCA. My first "task" when I'm there is to care for the small animals (mainly bunnies, and some guinea pigs).

I am a dog-lover by nature, but having worked with these bunnies at the SPCA, I have begun to love them just as much. In fact, we recently adopted one of them - a Flemish Giant - who was abandoned and found as a stray, and who was a bit "ornery," and thus, less cute and cuddly (and more difficult to place). We love her ~ she fits right in w/my dogs.

I can tell you, though, I am dreading the next few months as I know we at the SPCA will see an increase in bunny surrenders as a result of the Easter season. I wish people would do their homework before plunging into the world of bunny "ownership."

Posted April 13, 2009, 1:18 by ellengilmore

We were featured in the L.A. Examiner here.

Posted April 08, 2009, 7:23AM by bjkoll

Helpful links on the dangers on adopting “Easter pets” and on rabbit and bird rescues in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana -
• Information from Georgia Department of Agriculture regarding giving baby animals as pets at Easter
• CDC warning on giving baby chicks as gifts
• North Georgia Chapter of the House Rabbit Society
• Feathered Friends Forever Rescue/Refuge, Inc. (Harlem, Georgia)
• Alabama EARS (Chapter of the House Rabbit Society)
• Rabbit Rescue (South Florida)
• House Rabbit Adoption Rescue and Education (Coral Gables)
• Tampa Bay House Rabbit Society
• Magic Happens (Rabbit rescue in Baton Rouge)
• Rabbit Rescue of Louisiana

Posted April 08, 2009, 4:22 by JLM

Glad to see the bunnies are making the headlines.
Great story and a great list of links. Many thanks to you both.

Posted April 10, 2009, 12:5 by trudy60

I ask all of you reading this if you use facebook or myspace do what i did and post a "note" or "bulletin" to all your friends about avoiding the urge to get a bunny for a child on Easter without considering the long term implications. Here is my post to my friends that may help you create yours...

Titled "A Reminder about Bunny Rabbits this Easter"

If you are considering buying a bunny for a loved one this Easter please consider the responsibility you are going to have after the cuteness of the present and the child's excitement wears off. This is the worst time of year for bunnies because they pop up everywhere and people buy them for the novelty. What happens after the Easter holiday??? Many of these bunnies end up with owners who are unaware how to properly care for them and often do not live the life they deserve.

If you are considering purchasing a furry cute bunny as an addition to your family please consider that this is a living being and by taking it you are pledging to this animal that you are going to be responsible for providing proper food and housing for the remainder of its life. (Bunnies love bananas btw...little known fact)

An alternative to buying that cute bunny is to sponsor a bunny at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.

Here is a clip from their website...

This Easter, when you sponsor a bunny from Best Friends, part of your donation will go to rebuild The Best Friends Bunny House. More than 130 “buns” call The Bunny House their home, and your gift will help keep them safe and warm for years to come. There are chubby buns, blue-eyed buns, genius buns and more ... so sponsor a Best Friends bunny for someone you love this Easter, April 12! Go to www.bestfriends.org for more information.

Posted April 14, 2009, 11:29AM by Joy

That's awesome, Ellen! And who better to get her beautiful photo in the paper than the lovely Debby BunBun?!