Watching for rabbit abandonment after Easter

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Year of the Rabbit – Global News Interview

Click the image below to read the full article, featuring an interview with Executive Director of Rabbit Rescue Haviva Porter!

RR in National Geographic

Why animal shelters are facing a new crisis

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Rabbit Rescue & Bradford Today

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“Since Easter, a time when some people buy bunnies as gifts, Rabbit Rescue has assisted with 83 dumped domestic rabbits, said its executive director Haviva Porter.”

Read the full article here

Vegas Bunnies, Part II

IMG_2220-TaliOn April 17th, Rabbit Rescue received our second round of Las Vegas bunnies.  Working closely with rescue, Erin from “Rusty and Furriends” in Las Vegas, and Jodi and Rodney, our stellar drivers, we were able to successfully transport TWENTY rabbits.  We donated space & all travel costs for 5 rabbits that we delivered to rescues in the USA and 15 came to us.  Erin worked tirelessly to prepare the rabbits for this long transport. From fecal testing, health checks and certificates, to emergency packs, toys, treats and water bottles!  A number of truly wonderful and selfless people opened up their homes across the USA to welcome these 20 buns into their homes for overnights.  Its no small feat to set up housing and look after that many bunnies! This trip could not have been done without them. HUGE thanks to our amazing foster homes, who greeted these bunnies with open arms once in our care. A number of these bunnies had forever homes lined up for them, and they were adopted upon arrival.  We still have a number of these adorable bunnies up for adoption, including a few from “round one”.  Please visit the adoption page to find the right bunny for you!   Thank you to everyone who donated to the GoFund me travel fund that helped us raise full travel fees in less than 24 hours!

Most of the bunnies that we received from Vegas are from the “dumping grounds” and their situation was critical. However a few of the rabbits we got were living in shelters for up to SEVEN years!  We are so grateful for the shelter staff for taking such good care for them for so long. We were honoured to spring them from the shelter.

Talmadge is one of the bunnies that came to us from Vegas, although she almost didn’t make the trip!  The day before transport was leaving, she got badly injured by another bunny. She had emergency surgery but had to stay overnight at the vets. Transport was supposed to leave the next morning at 5am, but we were able to delay it, so that Talmadge could get vet clearance to come too! The vet approved her as safe to travel to Canada, and off she went with the other 19 bunnies. Our drivers took superb care of her and ensured her health and well being. She had been living at a shelter for the last FIVE years. After the first year, she lost her bunny mate and has been on her own for the last 4 years. So, it was so important that she did not get left behind, as her new life was waiting to begin.

Local rabbit sanctuary sees surge of Easter bunnies brought in every year

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“Without fail, every year, we get a lot of calls following Easter time when parents will find the Easter bunny they bought at a pet store, or a breeder, aren’t working out for them. We actually don’t do adoptions over Easter,” says Executive Director, Haviva Porter-Lush.

See the full story here.

Cambridge rabbit rescue gears up for unwanted Easter bunnies

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A local rabbit rescue service anticipates a surge of unwanted bunnies now that Easter has come and gone.

The cute, cuddly creatures are often an impulse purchase as an Easter gift for children, but Haviva Porter-Lush at Rabbit Rescue Inc. wishes people would buy stuffed or chocolate bunnies instead.

“Without fail, every year in the three to four months after Easter we get calls from parents whose children have lost interest in the rabbit,” she said.

Read the full story here.

More rabbits found abandoned in days after Easter

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Rabbit rescue organizations are preparing for an influx of surrendered and stray bunnies as Easter weekend comes to an end.

The executive director of Rabbit Rescue Inc. in Cambridge, Ont., said oftentimes, parents who buy the animals for their kids don’t understand what they’re getting into.

“They’re really similar to cats and dogs, not like hamsters and gerbils,” Haviva Porter-Lush said. They can’t be kept in a small cage, for instance. Porter-Lush recommends keeping them in a pen or a dedicated room to themselves.

Full news story here.

Easter not so happy for rabbits raised for meat in Canada

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Haviva Lush, executive director of Rabbit Rescue Incorporated, a southern Ontario-based charity, has seen what happens without any protections in place for rabbits. She’s rescued meat rabbits that were missing limbs, covered in abscesses “with pretty much every disease a rabbit could get.”

“Reality is,” says Lush, “rabbits suffer more than most animals, not only due to no codes of practice, but because they do not need to be rendered unconscious before they are strung up for slaughter.”

Read the full story here.

Local rabbit rescue group helps save bunny left as garbage

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A Cambridge-based bunny rescue organization is seeking a forever home for a rabbit that was left to die tied up in garbage bag last week in Vaughn.

Haviva Lush, executive director of Rabbit Rescue Incorporated, learned about the fluffy white critter on March 8, one of three put out as garbage but later found after one of the bunnies chewed its way out of the bag.

Full story HERE.

OSPCA euthanizes rabbit with ‘forever’ home waiting

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A bunny left in the Orangeville OSPCA’s care has been euthanized even though the director of a rabbit rescue agency says a permanent home had been secured for her.

“It is so tragically unfair. This bunny was saved, only to be euthanized,” argued Haviva Porter-Lush, executive director of the Rabbit Rescue based in Cambridge. “They knew we had a confirmed spot, a permanent place where she would get the care she needed forever.”

Full story HERE.

Eleven rescued rabbits in need of a home

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A Cambridge woman who helped rescue more than 70 rabbits from “deplorable” living conditions last summer is still working to find homes for 11 bunnies.

Haviva Porter-Lush, who founded the Cambridge-based Rabbit Rescue foundation more than 15 years ago, successfully located foster and adoptive families for nearly all of the rabbits seized from a Peterborough facility, which raised them for meat in unacceptable conditions.

Full story HERE.

No bunny left behind: Cambridge rescue group seeks foster homes for neglected rabbits

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It was controlled chaos at Haviva Porter-Lush’s house on Sunday morning.

Porter-Lush heads Rabbit Rescue Inc., a charity she set up 15 years ago that’s dedicated to helping place rabbits that have been abandoned, neglected or mistreated. On Sunday, she was taking on the delivery of the first 40 of a group of 110 rabbits rescued from the Peterborough area.

Cardboard cat carriers filled all the available space in the dining room, a volunteer was busy photographing rabbits and checking them off a list, while two other people were unloading rabbits from a van and gradually filling the dozens of boxes with bunnies.

Read the full story here.

After 103 rabbits seized, Cambridge-based Rabbit Rescue seeks homes

bunnyweb___GalleryHaviva Porter-Lush is on a mission to find as many local homes as possible for bunnies seized from a Peterborough facility where rabbits were being raised for meat in “deplorable” conditions.

Porter-Lush, who started the Cambridge-based Rabbit Rescue foundation 15 years ago, is working with animal advocates in Peterborough to locate permanent, or foster, homes for the 103 rabbits seized.

Full story HERE.

Many of these bunnies are still looking for their forever homes, check out our adoption section to save one!

The hare-raising tales of a rabbit foster mom

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While there are cruelty cases of hoarding and mass abuse, other rabbits are abandoned outdoors by families who are simply tired of having them as pets, leaving them susceptible to starvation, dehydration for becoming roadkill. “They don’t have survival skills,” says Porter-Lush.  Read the full story here.

Two Bunnies Saved From Slaughterhouse

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We have BIG news to share. Rabbit Rescue Inc & The Save Response team are delighted to announce the release of TWO rabbits from a Southern Ontario Slaughter House. Two months in the works, were able to save these bunnies that were scheduled for slaughter June 15th 2015. These bonded females are only 12 weeks old.

They need names! We would love to hear your suggestions to help us find the perfect names for these two! Please visit us on Facebook and comment with your name suggestions! You can also help make a difference in their lives by donating towards their spays and any medical care they need. All donations are tax deductible. Click Here.

You can help other rabbits just like these by signing our petition, help us get to 5,000 signatures:  Click Here.

Lets help get the word out that rabbits are ‪#‎petsnotfood Join us in the fight to stand up for rabbits everywhere!

 

 

Canadian Easter Bunnies Breathe a Sigh of Relief over Nature’s Bounty Giveaway!

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, April 17, 2014 /CNW/ – Nature’s Bounty® Vitamins has announced the winners of its second annual ‘Share the Bounty’ $100,000 charity giveaway, and one of them even has a cotton tail connection, JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER! Read more

The link to all of the contest winners.

Pet rabbits purchased at Easter often abandoned by families…

TORONTO – They’re cute and fluffy and they make great Easter gifts for kids.

But animal rights groups are warning parents to stay away from buying pet rabbits as an Easter novelty, because a few weeks later, the small animals typically end up abandoned.

“We try hard to educate that rabbits are not toys, they should not be given as gifts – particularly for small children,” Haviva Lush, executive director of Rabbit Rescue, told Global News. Read more

Bunny Rescue Force

KITCHENER — The tiny cardboard castle in Brenda Lloyd-Yetman’s living room is fit for a princess — a particularly furry princess named Lancie — with her adorable twitchy nose, long delicate ears and air of rabbit royalty about her.

Lloyd-Yetman loves bunnies and devotes hours caring for Lancie — the rabbit was even in her wedding party — and she runs the online store for Rabbit Rescue Inc., a non-profit organization of volunteers scattered across Southwestern Ontario who rescue… Read more

Abused rabbits rescued from Manitoulin Island home

Charges were laid Monday Aug. 15th. The Ontario SPCA has charged Hendrick Reckman of Billings Township, with 26 counts of animal cruelty under the Ontario SPCA Act, after over 400 rabbits were found in his care. 200 of those rabbits were euthanized. Rabbit Rescue took in over 100 of the remaining ones. Read more

Bunny benefiting from prosthetic support

Mobility-challenged Pipkin outfitted with what’s believed to be first such device made in Canada

Little Pipkin won’t be flipping over onto his back in the middle of the night anymore. And that has his owner flipping out with appreciation.

Taken in by Haviva Lush of the Milton-based Rabbit Rescue Inc. after being surrendered as a baby five years ago, the dwarf lop cross — born to brother/sister parents — is the textbook definition of a special-needs bunny. Read more

Island man faces charges for cruelty

Haviva Porter is over-whelmed by rabbits.

The executive director of the Rabbit Rescue in Milton, Ont., recently received 103 rabbits from the Sudbury area, many of which had respiratory infections, parasites and, in the case of one animal, needed to have its eye removed.

These rabbits were among the 400 taken by the Ontario SPCA in May from a Manitoulin Island property.

Hendrick Reckman has been charged with 26 counts of animal cruelty after the SPCA received an animal care complaint. These charges include five counts of permitting animals to be in distress, five counts of failing to provide necessary care for general welfare and one count of failing to kill an animal humanely. If convicted, Reckman could face a $60,000, fine up to two years in jail and a lifetime ban from owning pets. Read more

Rabbit Rescue, supporters come to aid of 103 bunnies

Just hours removed from the most demanding day in Rabbit Rescue Inc.’s nine-year history, Haviva Lush is running on empty.

But asked about the help received for her organization’s latest efforts and the Milton animal lover’s exhaustion quickly fades — replaced by a smile that speaks volumes about her appreciation for the ever-growing support for her work. Read more

This Easter, make your bunny chocolate

They are lovable even in the off-season. But with Easter around the corner, the temptation to buy or adopt a bunny to surprise the family or make him a part of the seasonal decorations is even greater.

The trouble is Thumper’s novelty factor may not last beyond the holiday weekend, says Haviva Lush, the executive director of Rabbit Rescue, a Milton-based registered charity that takes in more than 500 small abandoned, abused, or neglected rabbits every year and places them in foster homes.

“Easter purchases are often impulse purchases, and they will just be returned later on,” Read more