By Donna Heinlen

It’s that time of year…Easter…when children’s thoughts turn to colored eggs and chocolate bunnies.   But it’s also a time when pet stores’ thoughts turn to selling cute bunnies to the parents of those children.  That time of year when those of us in the animal rescue business’ thoughts turn to “Oh no!  It’s Easter again”.  That’s right.  Because in about two or three months, all those children are going to be over the novelty of having a bunny and their moms are going to be tired of all the cleaning, because guess what – rabbits are a LOT of work.  Rabbits poop about two hundred to three hundred times a day.  So the bunnies…well, they’re going to be offered up to the local animal shelter (which will be full, by the way).  And the others?  Well, they’re going to be turned loose outside, because “hey, rabbits can survive outside, right?”.  WRONG!  Sure, wild rabbits survive outside for a while.  But according to the Department of Natural Resources, wild rabbits that survive long enough to leave the nest typically survive only about eleven months.  Rabbits are prey animals.  They don’t survive out there long.  The domestic bunnies that you buy from a pet store or a breeder – they have NO survival skills.  What started as an eight-to-twelve-year life span suddenly becomes a matter of days or weeks.  Nor are domestic rabbits equipped to survive the temperatures that they will encounter outside.  There is very little for them to eat, because domestic rabbits don’t eat the grass and wild plants that their wild cousins eat.  They will probably survive a matter of weeks at best, hungry and terrified.  And here’s something that I’ll bet you didn’t know..rabbits shouldn’t live in a cage.  We’ve all seen the cute pictures, such as the one on the outside of the box when you go to buy your bunny cage at the pet store.  That’s advertising propaganda to sell the cage.  Rabbits have to have space to move around just as your dog, your cat, YOU!  Domestic rabbits should live in an exercise pen, or ‘free roam’ in the house, with a litter box.  In a cage, a rabbit’s muscles will atrophy.  He will become irritable and stressed very quickly.  And then there’s the poop – lots of poop.  Very few children are going to remain interested and responsible enough to clean up after them daily.  It falls on an adult, who quickly tires of yet one more thing to do.  Let’s talk about vet care.  Bunnies have to have a yearly vaccination, the same as your cat or dog.  Their specialized vets are few and far between.  We only have two veterinary practices anywhere south of Atlanta that are qualified to treat exotics.  And…you guessed it…it’s not cheap.  Rabbits are medically very fragile creatures, often falling prey to a condition known as ‘stasis’, which is life-threatening.  Of all the people that I know who do own rabbits, not one of us has escaped having to deal with stasis.  All of which brings us to where people like me come in, because it’s about this time that the phone calls start coming in..from the animal shelter, from good Samaritan neighbors who find the bunny that you’ve ‘set free’.  We then have to find and trap them, bring them home, and take them to a special vet called an Exotics Vet who is specially trained to care for rabbits.  We then hope that in the time that he’s been outside, your bunny hasn’t contracted any number of viruses, parasites, or mites that are common to outside bunnies.  Once that is done, we then have to try to find a rescue that isn’t full.  Remember the animal shelter?  Nope, they’re not going to take them, at least not for long.  They’ll just call someone like me to come and get them.  And the rabbit rescues?  You’ve got it – they’re already full.

If you are an animal lover, can you really say that all of this is worth the few weeks’ worth of your child’s Easter being made “special” by getting a live bunny?  Is it fair to cause an animal to suffer from neglect or worse?  Or maybe you’re not an animal lover in particular, but you’re a good and decent person.  Is it worth it to put the animal rescue people involved through this much heartache? Yes, it tears our hearts out to see what abandoned animals suffer through.  Listen, cats and dogs make great pets when they’re planned for and properly taken care of.  They’re relatively easy when compared to an exotic animal (bunnies, birds, lizards, ferrets, snakes).  But an animal of any kind is not intended to be an impulse purchase.  Please do yourselves, the animals, and the rescue community a favor this Easter and get your child a chocolate bunny, NOT a live one.

Guest Columnist Donna Heinlen is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Fayetteville. She has coordinated Lost and Found pets for decades within the Fayetteville neighborhood she lives in. Currently, she is also involved in the rescue of dogs as well as exotic pets in the community.