there is absolutely no point in rescuing the UVic rabbits if you do not provide them with proper facilities to live safely and well. outside rabbit areas need BOTH under ground fencing and over head fencing in addition to side wall fencing and the fencing better be made out of top quality wire and it better be strong...this means you dig down about 3 feet of the ENTIRE rabbit habitat area (not just along the fence lines) and you underwire the entire undergound that they have access to.... because....bunnies DIG BURROWS AND TUNNELS! and this also means that if you do not want eagles and hawks and owls and climbing predators like bobcats and weasles to kill your rescued rabbits..you have to wire off the roof of the enclosure to keep those pedators out.
everyone makes mistakes and miscalculations in rescue...we lost quiet because i thought chicken wire was safe enough for the roof part of the pen. BUT once we found out how wrong i was on this...all of the birds were moved onto the chicken coop ends and shut indoors at night until we can re-wire the roof areas properly. i have no intention of losing one single other bird..once bitten, twice shy and no one else has to die....hard lessons better be very well learned.
to lose 90 rabbits and have them being shot over in a neighbors hay field...to have rabbits loose up next to the highway is more than a miscalculation...it is total and complete utter stupidity...what the hell were they thinking...plop them down in some back yard and there they would conveniently stay?
the rabbitats that are being promoted are no safer in my opinion... four foot high wooden? fencing (bunnies can chew thru a fence) and no roof covering ...pretty damn easy for any pedator to get in and bunnies are prey food for many.
i think it is great when folks step up to the plate to rescue animals..BUT...you do them no favor at all if you don't know what you are doing. please pass on this one bit of advice..if someone wants to rescue ANY animal..make sure they have what they need to do it right.
Best Friends has appropriate and safe rabbit areas...go onto their website or send them an email..they will tell anyone what they need to know to rescue rabbits safely.
now i am thinking i should build a safe rabbit habitat area and take in some of the UVic bunnies to prevent them from getting shot by pissed off sanctuary neighbors...what exactly was the point in saving them anyway...why not just let them get shot in victoria? why all the hassle and fighting and expense to catch them to move them if their outcome with either option is just simply dead?
and for chrissakes....quit fighting with the gun toting neighbor...apologise profusely and pay her several thousand dollars for damages incurred and actual inconvenience to keep her finger off of the trigger until those rabbits can be re-caught.
this kind of thing just pisses me off.
So infuriating, those rabbits met the same fate before and after "rescuing". What has amazed me is the lack of compassion around many for this outcome. Referring to the rabbits as "pests" and saying they got what was coming to them. Do these people not understand that these are man-made "pests"?
They became pests because people refused to be responsible; they became pests when those same people dumped them, unaltered and with no survival skills, up at the University where they are harrassed and terrified. Ignorant a**hats who thought a cute little bunny would be a great pet for their 6-year-old but had no idea how long a rabbit lives, that they get sick, that they need to be spayed/neutered. So just dump them and make them someone else's problem, and hey, who cares if they get shot/run over/tortured?
It saddens me that this has been the rabbits' fate. I love bunnies, they are wonderful pets. I am an approved bunny foster parent, and when I hear our foster's stories my heart breaks all over again. That people have such a lack of compassion and empathy for them horrifies me.