Paska - Easter
The RSPCA is running a campaign this year for better welfare for rabbits – see www.rspca.org.uk and go to the We’re All Ears section of the site.
Rabbit Awareness Week – aimed this year at raising awareness about the emotional welfare of rabbits – is from May 23rd. – 29th. 2011.
And please also see: http://www.makeminechocolate.org/ – an Australian campaign to stop people impulse-buying rabbits as Easter gifts.
Update on April 19.
Anna in Sydney writes:
On an abnormally wet day, I set off to a local shelter to deliver the Companion Rabbit Advocate Bunny Bags.
By the time I got there I was pretty wet, but so were the shelter staff, as most of the animals are in outside cages. The staff were doing their very best in the extremely cramped and run down conditions in which they operate. Some of the cages unfortunately were not water proof, in spite of staff doing their best with towels and tarpaulin to keep everyone dry.
You could see, by the way that rabbits were more responsive to humans than in another shelter I had previously visited, that they had been receiving some tender loving care, at least while at the shelter.
They work very hard to keep the kill rate extremely low, but obviously that is a priority area where further improvement would be desirable.
The day after my visit, all the six rabbits (it was to have been eight, but two were adopted on Friday afternoon), were to be driven across Sydney to a private no- kill shelter.
The staff were very keen to learn as much as they could about rabbits and spent a lot of time with me asking intelligent questions. I was sad to see the conditions staff and volunteers have to work under and one would always wish better housing for the animals, but, that said, if you must end up at a pound this must be a preferred option.
I certainly felt inspired by the staff and am still thinking about what more I can do to help.
When visiting my daughter, in Western Australia, I was very pleased to find my grandchildren kept and loved rabbits. My grandson James, who was 18 at the time, had 2 darling rabbits with beautiful housing with loads of space for the rabbits to play and run around. Was so happy to see my daughter, and grand daughters, caring for stray animals. Spent most of my time in the outback looking at the way animals lived but saw few rabbits.
I still take in rabbits, in Suffolk, as I did in Walthamstow E17.
Thank you for sharing this information about rabbits on your website!
We see many wild rabbits in the neighborhood of our house, which is in a (vegetarian) intentional community in California. They show behavior of various kinds; at this time of year they are playing courtship games, chasing and hopping over each other, which looks like fun. In short, they have their own agendas, just as we do. They have a right to their own lives.