I'm pretty sure your mostly just preaching to the quire here...no one here breeds rabbits (that I know of), and most have rescues.

 

I wouldnt have posted it if I didn't know about people doing it, and ive even read (in these forums) about people wanting to find a "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" for their buns with intent to breed them. I only posted it because I was concerned, and a lot of it goes on in my area. I havnt met anyone personally who has a rescued rabbit.

 

Oh, yeah okay. I haven't seen anyone talking about breeding their rabbits on here lately, which is a good thing (unless I missed a topic somewhere).

A decent amount of people with rabbits on here have rescue rabbits. My Barnaby was a rescue, of sorts. I didn't get him from a shelter but from a family who didn't want him anymore. He wasn't in very good shape when I got him but he's a healthy little guy now

Good luck with your new little one.

 

I was talking to a vet who believes that the biggest problem is those people who refuse to get their pets altered because they want their children to go through the experience of having a litter of baby animals. These are the bunnies that usually end up in shelters, unlike the bunnies of responcible breeders.


I live in a major city and all rabbits at the shelter have been altered. The major pet store chains sell rescue rabbits, and it is difficult to find a bunny in a pet store. However, once you get about 50 miles out of the city, things are different. Bunnies are sold at farm supply stores and shelter rabbits in these rural counties are not altered! Big problems come when a breeder (usually of meat rabbits) is shut down for cruelity to animals, and rabbits are brought to the city for rescue organizations to deal with. (A cruelity case is more of a mental health problem then a breeder issue.) Then the rescue organization end up trying to rehab these unsocialized rabbits that don't make the best house pets.

 

I can't even have a rabbit...soo wont be me...breeding rescue or otherwise

I adore buns too!

 

Unsocialized rabbits, with dedication and work, can sometimes turn around to make some of the best house pets, from my experience. And sometimes even the most socialized rabbits still don't enjoy human interaction.

Rabbits definatly do have their own little personalities and they usually arn't the cuddly animals people think they are.

 

Flash is the truest form of rescue - I found him literally wandering on the street one night. It was pretty obvious he wasn't a wild rabbit by the way he was going around sniffing leaves and grass, trying to figure out if any of it was edible. If I hadn't picked him up and brought him home, there's no doubt in my mind that he would have been roadkill by morning or else starved to death within a couple of days.

--Fromper

 

Smudge is semi-rescued...
I got him from a breeder that didnt want him (there was an add int the paper), and was selling him really cheap because his markings made him un-showable. I was only 9 years old when I bought him, so I didnt really know much about the local shelters, or spaying/nuetering. xD
(BTW, the place I got him from wasnt a bad back-yard breeder... she took really good care of her animals, promoted fixing your buns, and said she would take any unwanted rabbit back so they dont end up in shelters.)


Sooo would that count as rescued, or not?? He was adopted from a place that didnt want him, so thats good enought for me! ^^


Baby bunnies are adorable, but if Smudge is still bouncing off the walls and leaving trails of destruction where ever he goes at 5 years old, I cant even imagine having baby bunnies hopping around!


I think it would be neat to adopt or foster an already prego bun from the shelter tho. Then you can have babies, and still be doing a good thing!

 

My first bun was like Flash - a stray. She was right in front of my car. It was either run her over or get out of the car and pick her up.
After she passed away we went to the SPCA and picked out two young bunnies. They weren't tiny babies but they were not full grown.
The SPCA brings animals to the local PetSmart on the weekends. That is where I met Penelope. She was always friendly and would come to the edge of her cage when some one talked to her. She was there week after week. One Saturday it was obvious she had given up. I tried to talk to her and she didn't budge. Others came over and still she didn't budge. I talked it over with Jay and went back to get her.
Teddy was another stray that was found by a friend in Central Park.
I joke that even though they have been spayed and neutered the buns in our house still seem to be multiplying!

 

i dont own a bun and can't due to allergies. but all my pets in my LIFE have been rescues. all dogs, cats, birds, a horse, my rats, mice, hammies, spinies, etc. i wouldn't do it any other way

 

Acacia wasnt a rescue but i believe i rescued her from the family who was selling her,her brotheres, and her sister(who had an untreated broken leg trying to escape the tiny cage) and the family who gave her to me hadnt any idea to the questions i asked like when was the last time they seen a vet (never) and what veggies they ate(none) and when i told the mom i intended to spay her she stuttered into the phone and couldnt believe me....I got Acacia when she was about 4 months old and she still has a hard time trusting people

Akina was bred by a breeder but Dawna had her for the first 2 years or so-i only got her last November or December (?).

I will only support rescue from now on though,especially with bunnies..Im the only one who voted "no"..

 

I'm the third "No". After reading online, I wanted to get a rabbit from a shelter but there weren't any nearby that I could drive back quick enough without frightening the poor rabbit. Plus Nino caught my attention from the first day I spotted her

 

Just FYI if you decide to get Nina a friend, rabbits travel well. We transport rabbits for drives of 8 hours or more to get them to good homes. Overall, they travel fairly well, they'll just hunker down and munch hay until the ride is over.

 

Yeah I'd definatly second that! I've made long trips with two rabbits numerous times and they both always handled it very well.

 

The problem I have found is that most rescue organizations have strick pollicies against outdoor adoptions, and they do not take into account who wishes to adopt or the history of the rabbit. If outdoor pet lovers want to adopt, of course they are highly likely to buy from breeders.

 

Being a good owner doesn't really stop rabbits from being killed by wildlife.

The awesome outdoor rabbit owners next to us had rabbits die from heart attacks when dogs got loose and attacked their hutch. It was terribly sad, they loved their rabbits, but you can't control the outdoors. You can't control all of the indoors either, sadly, but it's much MORE controlled, and wild animals aren't roaming around your house.

 

My bird got killed by our house dog. Our friend's pet died from eating lead paint. There are just as many dangers inside, they are just different dangers. The biggest danger to outdoor rabbits is ignorance. There isn't a large network of people to share information with, so much of the information on protecting rabbits outdoors isn't out there. Now organizations are putting rabbits outside in santuaries, and if others follow their example by keeping rabbits outside, a lot of rabbits will be at risk unless information is shared.

 

my rabbit was from a shelter and he didnt like to be tuched alot, but still he was an awesome pet, very social, if you leeved the room he follow you. hmm i dont knows alot about rabbits but if you got them as a bunny dont they goes thrugh a hormonal stage before they is adult? i dont know if it true its just somthing i heared. my rabbit haved live outside for som month of the year, he love it hanging out and eeting grasses. our yard was fensed in , and he sleeped in a huth atnight. onetime a cat came in my my rabbit chased it away hehe. i knows there is som risk having a pet(especaly a prey animal) live outside. but honestly if the pet is resonably safe its worth it in som case imo its just not natural to have your whole life inside.

 

Good luck with your bunnies. We're just going to have to agree to disagree, I'm afraid.

Growing up on a farm and seeing the mangled corpses of the poultry that my parents chose to keep outside made too strong of an impression on me. I could never expose a pet to that.

 

I rescued 3 house rabbit from a home where there was domestic abuse, and one of the rabbit was in such bad shape that I had to have him put to sleep. It would be a wonderful world if there were no homes with drug abuse, alcholics, or anger management problems. Abuse happens everywhere. Sorry you grew up with abused animals, but I did too and I wasn't raised on a farm. It is when dead animals are laying in the yard or field that abuse gets detected, but when the animals are inside, the neighbors never know what those poor little animals went through.

 

I'm sorry, did you read some other post? I didn't grow up with abused animals. I grew up with animals that were kept outside in large enclosures. Hopefully you're not silly enough to think it's abuse when my parents keep animals outside but not abusive when it's you doing it? I can't fathom how someone would call that abuse and then do the exact same thing.

I'm pretty insulted by your assumptions. Animals were not "laying in the yard" -- they were killed in their hutches for the most part, and found afterwards. They were my pets and I loved them and I buried them. Loving them didn't magically make wild animals not exist though.

Inside, I don't really run into these problems. I don't let drug addicts, people that hit animals, or violent alcoholics into my house. If they come in, I call the police. It works amazingly well. The inside of the house also doesn't have raccoons, opossums, foxes, hawks, owls, coyotes, and escaped dogs. So it's really the best of both worlds.

 

Sorry if I offended you, that was not my intentions, but the chickens in conditions as you described in many places would be considered neglect which falls under abuse. I don't know much about farming, but my niece has "free range" chickens and I know very little about animals in large enclosures. I believe that you don't run into problems of violence etc., I stated that because I am well aware that others do. Talking someone into putting a neglected pet inside the house my backfire. That is when neglect can turn into abuse.


I am sure the best place for your rabbits is inside of your house, but I don't think that holds true for everyone. Where pets do best depends on what each owner can provide. I want my pets where they can have the best quality of life, and my home and the area where I live is different from yours. So when people or organizations try to dictate one way of keeping rabbits is best for everyone, (inside of homes) I don't think they take into account the diversity found in American homes. Not providing information on how to keep pet safe outside because "We don't want to encourage it" is kind of like not teaching teenagers about the birds and the bees because we don't want them having sex.

_____________________________________________________

With the economy going bad and people losing their homes, the victims in all of this are often the family pets. As people move, they often need to leave their animals behind because it is more difficult to relocate with pets. Much of our economy is based on breeding animals, so to put breeders out of business would hurt all of us, and it is difficult to make laws rabbit specific. Some have made plans to try and force pet breeders out of business by limiting the number of animals a person may have, but that plan does not go over well with rescue organizations like the HRS, because it would also limit the number of animals a rescuer can have. And people do "rescue" rabbits from pet stores and bad breeders because what harm can come from their one bunny when there is no real plan to stop the overpopulation of rabbits, just a lot of venting at breeders, and sadly at the responcible breeders that do what they can to get their customers to sign spay/neuter agreements etc.. Venting does nothing but to spred a lot of hate and intollerence. Pushing the idea of rabbits being good housepets pushes up the demand for pet rabbits, both rescue and breeder rabbits. It works both ways. Some people go to a shelter, get the information on rabbits, and after they leave the decide they want a bunny instead. It happens! If people really want to solve the problem of too many shelter rabbits, the problem has to be looked at from all angles to come up with a workable plan.

 

I've had many rescue animals in my life. My first pet was a kitty from a humane society shelter when I was five. Cats pulled out of car engines, out of alleys, etc. Mice and hamsters snatched from the claws of irresponsible college students who though a pet was a great idea, until they had to go home for the summer.

So, We technically got Drizzt at a petstore, but he was a 'breeder reject'. He has a little thingie on his ear where he probably got bitten as a little tiny baby (it's like a little flap, and he has kind of a muddy color, with abrownish color kinda messing up the grey i guess). We could care less. Honestly, we went to the nice little petstore to get a cage, etc. Our plan was to get the stuff now, set it up, and get a bunny later. But Drizzt was so cool. SO calm. And I felt bad for the little guy, stuck in a pet store. God knows who would have taken him home. So I bought him. There are moments when I think, wow, I should have gone to shelter. But when I look in his big wide eyes, I know I made the right choice.
It's tough. I mean, I HATE that pet stores sell animals. But if we don't take them in, who will? But then, the pet stores just stock more. It's a never ending circle. But I like to think, that in the end, your animal chooses you.

 

I say animals can be kept just as well outside as inside...
Even though Smudge is outside, Id rather have him inside. But, there are advantages to living outside too, and I think Smudge rather likes it C: Its a whole lot more interesting than being kept inside all day, and even tho there are some dangers, hes much more happy in his hutch than in a cage inside. :yes: He gets really crabby and pouts if hes kept inside too long, LOL xD

 

If I ever got a rabbit, I would not keep it inside.
I would make a great big outdore enclosure, and let it run around out there (I would also get a couple of rabbits)...

I don't see the harm in this. As long as you make the whole think safe, there shouldn't be a problem...

 

The problelm is that is it virtually impossible to build an outside enclosure that will protect rabbits.

They don't even have to be touched by predators to die. A snarling dog trying to tear into the hutch and failing can frighten them enough to give them a heart attack. That's what happened with one of our volunteer's bunnies... her dogs got loose and went to her neighbors house and found their rabbit hutches. She was chasing them (as she was with them when they managed to find the fence break) and watched in horror as they managed to tear the toes off of one of the rabbits. She hauled the dogs away and ran back to the neighbors house and they discovered the other rabbit had hopped into the hutch and had a heart attack from the noise of the dogs trying to get in. (That's how she ended up with rabbits -- the owners refused to seek vet treatment for the other rabbit's toe wounds so she took him and went to the vet. Now Dockery lives inside and is a spoiled bunny with missing toes)

If you put the hutch directly onto the ground, a determined predator can burrow in (this is typically how raccoons got to our chickens -- even though we sank the fencing into the ground, they would continue to burrow until they managed to pry the fencing up.) Opossums would do much the same. We actually had a hawk land on one of the outdoor chicken runs and manage to kill a chicken through the wire with a lucky grab... while my mom was out feeding the chickens. It wasn't even deterred by a human standing there.

Even a city environ is not without predators. We live 5 minutes from a major international airport and in a very busy city area. In our backyard we've seen hawks, foxes, skunks, raccoons, feral cats, roaming dogs, opossums, deer, and even a coyote! (Which made the dog go nuts in her yard).

Here's a photo taken by someone of her guinea pigs outside when a fox wandered up in broad daylight when she ran inside to grab a drink:
http://www.guinealynx.info/images/fox.jpg

Predators are more brazen now that they're used to people, and that makes it extremely difficult to keep your pets safe. Do my bunnies go outside? Yes. I have an exercise pen for them, and on nice days we go hang out in the grass. Then they come inside and binky around their bunny room and rearrange their toys.

 

I've known a lot of people with outdoor bunnies, and have never heard of this problem, even though A LOT of them had dogs, and they were out by the cages from time to time.

To be honest, I think you are overreacting.
Yes, sometimes bad things happen, but how many of the buns that live outside dies from these things you are talking about?
You need to put it in perspective...

 

Hon, it's not THEIR dogs that are usually the problem, it's dogs from neighbors that tend to do damage to their animals.

I can't tell you for certain how many rabbits die this way. There's not a good way to track that number. HRS statistics suggest that the average lifespan of an outdoor rabbit is roughly 2 years, average lifespan of an indoor rabbit is 8-10 years. This roughly mirrors the statistics of outdoor cats vs. indoor cats.

We get many, many calls every year about rabbits injured this way. It's far from uncommon, and at adopt-a-thons people are constantly telling us stories like that. I haven't really talked to an outside rabbit owner here that didn't have something unfortunate to add that happened to their rabbit. Of course, most of them here also routinely die of heat strokes since it's not unusual to reach summer temperatures of 100 degrees with 100% humidity.

To be honest, if even ONE of my pets died of a heart attack from being attacked, or got torn apart by a predator, that's way too many for me.