It’s a bunny thing
Cat rescue group turns attention to capturing abandoned pet rabbits
Janet Bennett is used to catching cats and kittens, but her latest animal rescue endeavours have proved more of a challenge.
The administrator of Sunshine Kitty Rescue in Corner Brook has been busy lately trying to capture a group of dwarf rabbits that are on the loose in the Humber Heights area of the city.
According to the resident of Sherwood Avenue, there are four rabbits, which had belonged to two different owners from the neighbourhood, on the run.
Bennett suspects at least one of the owners used to let their rabbits outside regularly, but has been unable to retrieve them for the last two months.
There have been sightings and small rabbit tracks all over the neighbourhood.
For the last two weeks, live traps have been set in an attempt to catch them.
The first success was finally had Wednesday morning when Mary and Bruce Marshall, helpful neighbours of Bennett’s, managed to get one in a live trap set on their property.
“I have trapped hundreds of cats, but rabbits are a lot different,” Bennett said of needing help to humanely catch the rabbits. “They’re harder to get.”
The other rabbits have been seen at various times and locations between Sherwood Avenue and Clarence Street. There is one that has not been seen, and Bennett fears the worst may have happened to that one.
Still, the little tracks found in the snow gives her hope for the remaining animals. The best-case scenario is they have found some sort of den to protect them from the elements.
“If anyone has seen one of these in their backyard, under a bush or under their deck, please let someone know,” said Bennett.
“If they’re not out in the weather, they’re under something. As pitiful as it is, at least it would be something.”
She knows two of the four missing rabbits are males, but isn’t sure about the other two. She hopes they aren’t females and that they don’t reproduce.
She said it’s a shame people get pets they don’t really know how to care for or how to properly deal with if they don’t want them anymore.
“I don’t know what people are thinking,” she said. “These are pets and they don’t know how to survive like wild bunnies do, and they aren’t getting much to eat with all this snow cover. They don’t turn white like our wild rabbits do, either, so they can be easier targets for cats and dogs or anything else out there.”
The Newfoundland and Labrador West SPCA said it is interested in any information about who had owned these domesticated animals previously, so the matter could be properly investigated.
Kim Fraser of the SPCA said one reported owner has been checked out, but it is not believed these rabbits ever belonged to them.
Fraser noted Corner Brook isn’t the only place where pet dwarf rabbits are being abandoned.
She said the SPCA shelters in both Gander and Grand Fallswindsor are also currently dealing with the same issue, having found abandoned rabbits.