by Denise LeBeau, Best Friends StaffThe Best Friends Animal Society’s Reno Rabbit rescue effort has to date placed hundreds of rabbits that lived in basically substandard conditions where they were not spayed or neutered, or separated!
Rabbits do not come into “season” or have heat cycles. A mature female is always able to reproduce, and they have a gestation period of about 30 days. This is the delicate and challenging situation Best Friends walked into in Reno last spring.
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Stepping up to help was the Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary, located in Whittaker, MI. They took five hundred of these rascally rabbits. Here the rabbits are king of the castle(s) made of bales of straw and the bales are piled up all over their enclosure. “They love to tear them up,” Lake Jacobson founder of GLRS tells me, “they also dig tunnels in the bales and sand underneath!”
Lake has been running an animal sanctuary since 1995, at the time the rescue was called Pig Hoppers. When she moved to Michigan after her husband had gotten a job in the region, she could see a real need for rescues dedicated to “farm” animals. “We opened the rescue at the height of the pot bellied pig craze,” Lake explains, “the humane societies started calling us because they weren’t able to handle farm animals such as pigs, and many shelters were even unwilling to take in rabbits.”:
Lake had studied the animal protection movement in graduate school, which had her interning over the years at Farm Sanctuary and also working for the Doris Day Animal League in Washington D.C. It was during this time that she realized she liked working hands-on with animals.
In Grad School, Lake also got introduced to her first pet rabbit – her own! Her boyfriend at the time was allergic to cats but not rabbits (but beware a major reason for rabbit adoption returns are allergies), so Lake picked up a book, and her cohabitation with rabbits began. This was twenty years ago, before many veterinarians even knew they could spay and neuter rabbits!
While she has found that through education and public awareness more people are educated about the proper treatment of rabbits, there is still a void in understanding them. “People don’t realize that rabbits are very territorial,” Lake continues, “we try to adopt out bonded pairs, it’s better for the rabbits and the owners long term.
A single rabbit can sometimes accept a second friend, but this is much harder to arrange than if the adoptive family had just gotten two rabbits to begin with. Also, rabbits need stimulation, interaction, exercise and affection. You can’t just put your rabbit in a cage and expect him or her to be happy.
They become cage aggressive when left to their own monotonous boredom; or they can also go into a vegetative state, often we’ve found that just getting them out of the caged environment and finding the rabbit a mate can get them to do a 180 behavior and health-wise almost immediately.”
“Rabbits can be litter trained quickly, they’re naturally clean, and they’re quiet so they make excellent pets for apartments,” explains Lake, “but they need to have an enriched environment, And for some reason electrical wires are quite attractive to busy bunnies, so you must ensure that your house is rabbit proof before letting your rabbits hop about unfettered!”
However, most of the Reno Rabbits are “outdoor” rabbits, as they’ve lived their life with the minimum care from humans, they’re more akin to ferals; like feral cats that need the nurturing of a caregiver, but don’t necessarily want the affection or attention. These rabbits have been coming around, though! All the rabbits have names, and get as much individual attention as possible. Lake has seen them go from scurrying to hide when she approached their habitat, to now scurrying towards her in hopes of leafy treats!
While the majority of these “rescued” Reno rabbits are not offered for adoption - they have the perfect set up for their special needs at GLRS. When a rabbit from Reno is sick or injured, they are taken from the herd and treated separately.
There have been occasions where a seemingly wild rabbit has turned out to be quite sweet, and these rabbits are moved with a “friend” into the adoptable area. Even though the Reno rabbits are generally not up for adoption, Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary has over a hundred friendly, domestic rabbits currently available for their new forever homes.
Also due to the weather and season, GLRS finds itself in need of volunteers! Lake knows that Easter generates a lot of publicity for their rescue, and they often get a surge of more volunteers, they really need some extra hands now!
If you would like to adopt a great companion rabbit or volunteer at Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary please check out their website at:
http://www.rabbitsanctuary.org/
Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary
POB 7
Whittaker, MI 48190
(734) 461-1726
info@rabbitsanctuary.org
Stay tuned for more on the rabbits from Reno!
Please visit the Best Friends Rabbit Communityhttp://network.bestfriends.org/bfrabbits/news/