Rabbit rescue: Bunnies welcomed for Easter abandoned after holiday

Kimberley McGee

Monday, April 26, 1999 | 9:43 a.m.

At first, the baby bunny pulled from the pile of squirming fur in the pet store is adorable. The quiet critter is escorted home with sighs and happy mutterings of what a great Easter gift this little bundle will be.

But after that holiday luster rubs off, many bunnies are forgotten -- their quality of life diminished, if not doomed, after being ignored by busy families.

"People think they are cute until they grow up," Mary Herro, owner of the Las Vegas Animal Foundation, says. "Then they leave them in a cage or just get rid of them."

The foundation usually receives a few lost rabbits throughout the year, until about three months after Easter, when that number multiplies like, well, you know.

"We receive maybe one a week usually," Herro says. "Then, about three or four months after Easter, we get eight or nine a week."

Families fed up with Fluffy discard rabbits at local animal shelters or leave them to fend for themselves near grassy areas around the valley.

"A lot of times they are abandoned in neighborhoods, dogs chase after them, so people give us a call to come get them," Herro says.

Rabbits are easier to think of as a cuddly stuffed animal, a holiday gift, she says, rather than a commitment to a living bundle of fluff that needs human love and attention like any household pet.

"People go out and buy chickens, ducks and bunnies for their kids for Easter, but what they don't realize is that they grow up big and are more like farm animals," Theressa Law, public receiver for the foundation, says.

Bunnies may burrow into your heart with their soft cuddling and soulful eyes, but they also like to burrow into your home, eating through carpeting, furniture and wood doors unless properly trained.

"Then they get mad at the bunny and they bring it in," Law says, shaking her head.

People should educate themselves before they get any animal, she suggests -- get a book on the breed, especially if it is an exotic animal. The foundation offers videos and books on animals for future pet parents.

But what many people don't know is that grown rabbits make great house pets: They don't require shots or licensing, are very low maintenance, quiet, clean (they can be trained to use a litter box) and inexpensive, costing only $5 (for a neutered bunny) at the foundation, and less than $10 a month in food.

Baby rabbits can become nervous around a lot of activity and noise and can feel insecure and frightened when they are picked up, held or squeezed, as children are prone to do. This makes the baby bunny unpleasant to play with, and when the cute, round plaything turns into a 10-pound animal, novelty turns to nuisance.

"They are hard to adopt once they are grown out of that cute, adorable baby stage," Herro says.

The ducks and chicks received at the foundation end up in ponds that homeowner associations or parks have donated for wildlife rescue. The foundation says it does all it can to find homes for the hundreds of animals it receives monthly.

"Any time an animal reaches the last day before it is euthanized, we will try to get it a home, even give it away," Law says.

Just like the holiday bunny fever, people get ga-ga over an animal when movies depict them in a sweet manner with human qualities.

"The ('101 Dalmations') movie comes out and then we get all these dogs," she says, adding that cocker spaniels, the cute and cuddly animals from "Lady and the Tramp," become large responsibilities.

"They are cute with big floppy ears, but (owners) don't know the breed's personality and if it will fit in with them," she says.

And once the rabbit ends up at the shelter, owners don't claim them.

"People don't look for their rabbits," Law says. "They don't look for cats, either. Dogs, they look for."

Bonnie Adar-Burla didn't know she loved bunnies until she got two, and they multiplied to 12 within a month. Although she gave most of that first litter away, her bunny population would stay in the double digits. She became known as a bunny rescuer, taking in strays and lost rabbits.

"They are like no other animal," Adar-Burla says. "They are just so loving."

"We give them respect, other people don't," adds her husband, Allon. "We share our life with them."

The realtor couple have more than 20 rabbits in a 12- by 50-foot converted horse stable with large cottonwood trees and minibales of hay outside their home office on the west side of Las Vegas.

The Adar-Burlas' rabbits have created three warrens (communities) in their back yard, an area where they are allowed to dig tunnels and hutches to keep cool in the summer.

The rabbits gently groom each other and some offer themselves up to be held and their heads petted. Some are house rabbits, which Bonnie Adar-Burla has trained and prefers inside. Currently, all are living in the rabbit-proofed side yard.

"When you are in your living room and see your rabbit hop across the floor, it's just so sweet," she says.

Thousands of years of domestication, however, have not deterred the social animals' need for companionship.

"It's a relationship just like people -- we go to lunch, go shopping together, we get to know each other," she says. "If I just passed by and said, 'Hi,' I would never get to know you."

The adult rabbits that will be up for adoption soon make great pets, Bonnie Adar-Burla adds, because they are already "broken in" -- past their mischievous stage and into the golden years of cuddledom.

"They will lay down on the sofa with you and watch TV," her husband says.

To really bond with a bunny, Bonnie Adar-Burla says, get on the floor with them, be gentle and give them carrots -- their favorite treat.

Although she is running out of room, she doesn't want any bunnies to go unwanted and be left out in the wild. A bunny on the loose is heartbreaking -- and flowers have no chance.

The couple's most recent edition, Blackie, was corralled by irritated home owners after weeks spent ruining foliage.

"Blackie was in Los Pradas (a subdivision in the northwest), eating all their flowers. ... Two elderly gentlemen finally trapped him in their garage and (called) us." Allon Adar-Burla says. "We had to bring him here."

Because, his wife adds, bunnies on the run don't last long.

"They are prey to everything."