Calling all bunny rescuers: If you have an amazing bunny rescue story to tell, there’s a new website that wants to showcase it.  The site, the Great Animal Rescue Chase, is focused on bringing together a worldwide community of animal rescuers, sharing rescue stories, and inspiring more people to get involved in animal welfare.

The aim of the site is to highlight stories of rescues taking place all around the world of a wide variety of animals.  Currently, they’re a little short on bunny stories.  So if you have one, please share!  If you register on the site, you can upload your photos and type in your story directly.

The site also sponsors a monthly giveaway, where winners can direct a gift to their favorite animal charity.

You can also donate to the site’s charity partner, the Harmony Fund, which sponsors a number of noble charities across the globe.

For more info, see: www.animalrescuechase.com.

Side note: I helped design this website and worked closely with the organization’s founder, Laura Simpson.   She is a very inspiring animal advocate, and I think her passion shines through on the site.  She also owns a very cute bunny named Norman, who is featured on the site’s sidebar!

Cindy Stutts of Rabbit Rescue and Rehab

Cindi Stutts has been volunteering with Rabbit Rescue and Rehab, New York City’s HRS chapter, for 15 years. Due to her efforts, more than 3,600 rabbits have been saved from euthanasia and have been placed in good homes.

Not only does Stutts personally screen people looking to adopt bunnies, she also ensures that she or one of her 30 volunteers will follow up with new owners after the adoption to make sure everything is going well.

According to bunny owner Abigail Aldridge, Stutts has “made a lot of people happy by helping with the adoptions and bringing the rabbits and the people together, and she is dedicated to this all on a volunteer basis.”

For more information about Stutts and Rabbit Rescue Rehab, see:

NY1.com
Rabbit Rescue and Rehab Website

In the summer of 2007, Ralph and Caryl Turner took in 100 domestic rabbits that had been released into public parks in Seattle. The Seattle Parks Department had neutered and spayed the group, and then the rabbits moved into a 1-acre run at Precious Life Animal Sanctuary in Sequim, Washington. Within the predator-proofed, fenced-in area, there are small shelters, and the rabbits have dug several burrows.

There are several cities that have feral rabbit problems, including San Diego, Sacramento, and Vancouver, but many have resorted to euthanasia as a solution. Seattle and Precious Life Animal Sanctuary have taken a humane approach to the issue. And although the bunnies at Precious Life require a lot of space and a lot of care, going through a hundred pounds of feed a week and a bale of hay every other week, the Turners say the rabbits help “keep them young.”

Like many shelters, they rely on donations and volunteers to keep the sanctuary running. Learn more at the Precious Life Animal Sanctuary website and the Peninsula Daily News.

At 21 years of age, Mandy Doyle, a vet assistant from Northford, CT, has already accomplished a great deal. She has rescued hundreds of rabbits over the past five years.

Her organization, CottonTail Rabbit Rescue, is a no-kill shelter dedicated to saving rabbits and finding them loving homes. Although Doyle has had a good adoption rate, placing bunnies in homes every few weeks, she ensures those who don’t find homes with other people will always have a place in her home or at other area rabbit rescues.

Learn more about CottonTail Rabbit Rescue:
CottonTail Rabbit Rescue Website
Courant.com

USA Today published a very touching story about a woman who fled from her abusive husband with nothing but her rabbit (named Ruby Angel). She had been living on the streets since October.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

She’d found a place to hole up. There was no heat or running water, but there was a roof and four walls. The gashes and bruises from the last beating were beginning to heal. She was feeling a little more secure, a little more capable of thinking ahead to more than just the next morning. But when a sudden cold snap hit, she knew there were time pressures that couldn’t be ignored. She worried the rabbit — her only friend, really — wouldn’t survive months of hard winter. She had to figure out a way off the streets, something more permanent.

Read the full article here at USA Today >

Ruby Angel

This holiday season, there are several ways you can help support rabbit rescues without going broke.

1. Chase Community Giving (vote via Facebook)
Chase Community Giving is a program run by Chase that will allow Facebook users to vote for local charities and non-profits, and help direct Chase corporate philanthropy dollars to eligible organizations in the following focus areas: education, healthcare, housing, the environment, combating hunger, arts and culture, human services, and animal welfare.
Vote for rabbit rescues/House Rabbit Society chapters near you

2. iGive.com
Find a local rabbit rescue, register with iGive and shop at brand name online stores through the iGive Mall. A portion of each purchase is donated to your cause.
Start shopping

3. The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge
Help The Animal Rescue Site choose which eligible Petfinder.com animal rescue organizations will receive special funds to help animals! You can cast one vote every day for your favorite rescue organization.
Vote for your local rabbit rescue today

4. Purchase Broadway tickets through Givenik
Buy discounted Broadway tickets through Givenik.com/hrs and 5% of your purchase is donated to the House Rabbit Society.
Purchase tickets

Rabbit Haven reports that Copper, the rabbit saved from euthanasia, is settling in nicely at his new permanent home with the rescue. Experienced bunny volunteers are already making progress getting Copper socialized with humans. If all goes well, they hope that after he’s neutered, he will form a bond with a spayed female rabbit as well.

From their press release:

On Monday, November 23, 2009, Kathleen Olsen, Executive Director of the Tacoma Humane Society, agreed to allow Rabbit Haven of Gig Harbor, WA., to take Copper. Copper was picked up and brought to Rabbit Haven by Sue Brennan, the rescue’s founder. “We are thankful that we could work with the Tacoma Humane Society to find a solution for this very famous rabbit,” said Brennan. “The Tacoma Humane Society does wonderful work and has found homes for many bunnies and other animals, and we’re grateful for what they do. At Rabbit Haven, we have bunny specialists well-equipped to handle even the most terrified and anxious rabbits, who sometimes bite out of fear and because they’ve been so mistreated in the past. Copper is a healthy, rambunctious teenage rabbit who will get the love and care that he needs to turn into a good house bunny.”

“This was a potentially sad story that had a very happy ending,” said Brennan. “House rabbits are wonderful, intelligent pets with great senses of humor. They can be litter-trained, do tricks, and more and more families are finding out how fun it is to share their homes with a house rabbit. We hope that Copper’s story will inspire more people to learn about house rabbits, and to support the work of animal shelters.”

Copper has already started to show progress at Rabbit Haven. Under the care of highly experienced rabbit experts, he has even started to ‘purr’ when held (rabbits purr by chattering their teeth.) At Rabbit Haven, Copper will continue receive the attention and care he needs to recover and learn to trust and socialize with humans. He will be neutered and, if possible, he will eventually be ‘bonded’ with a spayed female rabbit, as rabbits are happiest when they live in pairs and groups. Rabbit Haven will continue to work with local rescues to find homes for abandoned and mistreated rabbits.

For more info, visit Rabbit Haven’s website.

Copper purring in the arms of Chris, one of Rabbit Haven’s most experienced volunteers.

A story about a rabbit scheduled to be put down after biting a shelter volunteer has gathered attention from around the world. Copper the rabbit was living at the Pierce County Humane Society in Tacoma, Washington. A few days ago, he bit a volunteer so severely she needed to seek emergency medical care.

The shelter decided Copper must be euthanized. Although scheduled for death yesterday (Sunday), the unavailability of a vet to perform the euthanasia procedure bought Copper one more day. After an outpouring of protests and pleas from rabbit advocates worldwide, the shelter officials finally agreed today to let Rabbit Haven of Gig Harbor, WA take Copper in as an alternative.

For more info, see:
KATU.com
KomoNews.com
TacomaKomo
Rabbit Haven

Megan from Luv-A-Bun has kindly shared an update about the 34 rabbits they rescued in Lake Worth, Florida:

The babies are 4 weeks old in the pix and the adults are doing fabulously after everything they went through. Notice the bunny that has a heart on its side!

We have a pair traveling to a rescue in TN this weekend via the Bunderground Railroad and another pair going to a rescue in Tampa Thanksgiving weekend. It has been so heart warming to meet so many nice people who all share the same interest of helping the bunnies.

Thanks Megan and Luv-A-Bun for all your hard work!

Congratulations to Sweet Binks of Rhode Island for adopting out its 1000th rabbit today. The lucky bunny is called Maggie.

For more info, see: Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue.