They’re breeding like rabbits and need homes
Volunteers are looking to place more than 100 bunnies rescued from Granada Hills.
A volunteer group that rescued about a hundred rabbits from a Granada Hills home last month is under the gun to find them homes because they’re starting to multiply — as rabbits tend to do — with the likelihood that the colony could soon grow to more than 300.
The rabbits are at six animal shelters across L.A.
The tale began Feb. 20, when a resident of Granada Hills called Los Angeles Animal Services, asking for help to capture and remove a large group of rabbits, according to a spokesperson for the agency. The animals appeared to have been held in a makeshift pen in a backyard loaded with industrial equipment.
On Feb. 24, volunteers with the nonprofit Bunny World Foundation helped capture about 50 rabbits. The job was messy, as rain had left the area muddy, and most of the rabbits had matted fur. The rabbits the volunteers couldn’t grab were picked up by L.A. Animal Services on Feb. 27.
The rabbits were transported to the West Valley
Animal Shelter, where the babies were separated and taken by the Bunny World Foundation. Over the following days, the colony was dispersed to other shelters around the city.
“We picked up all the babies, because they couldn’t really make it and survive in the shelter system,” Bunny World Foundation founder Lejla Hadzimuratovic said.
The rabbits appeared to be well fed. However, the majority are longhair, meaning they should not have been kept outdoors and require daily brushing to avoid painful matting of the fur, Hadzimuratovic said.
The perpetually expanding colony is a handful for the volunteer group, which includes about a dozen people and hundreds of foster homes. The group is helping the city get the rabbits to medical appointments and is coordinating adoptions.
It’s unclear if anyone will be cited for the colony that flourished on the property. But it’s no surprise that the situation got out of hand, because a rabbit pregnancy
lasts about 30 days, meaning an adult female can have a litter every four to six weeks.
“I understand they had two pop last night, one with eight and one with seven babies,” Gayle Roberts, a veterinarian with the Northwood Animal Hospital in Irvine said about the rescued rabbits.
Roberts, who has worked with the Bunny World Foundation, spayed and neutered at least 10 rescued rabbits following their arrival at shelters.
While there is a real need to find the rabbits homes — either foster or permanent —Roberts cautioned animal lovers who might want to take them in. Consistent grooming is required to keep the fur from matting, and the animals’ diet and stools must be carefully monitored. If a rabbit has stomach issues, it is unable to vomit, because its digestive system is a one-way street. It will simply stop eating, and the normal digestive bacteria in its stomach will die out, Roberts said. Rabbit owners must be familiar with this
common and dangerous condition, known as gastrointestinal stasis.
“You have to watch them carefully,” she said.
“It’s a little bit labor-intensive as far as, like, buying their food and feeding them and cleaning up after them and whatnot.”
Additionally, each rabbit needs a companion rabbit and lots of room to play, preferably indoors, Roberts said.
A 2-for-1 adoption deal might be just what the city and Bunny World Foundation need as they seek homes for the animals.
“We have to screen all the candidates, because once people realize fostering is actually work, they sometimes back away,” Hadzimuratovic said.
“We depend on people’s integrity. If we’re going to pull this mom from the shelter and put her into your home, and then about a month later, you’re like, ‘Well, I’m done. Can someone else take it on?’ — well, who else is gonna take it on?”