Bunny burden

Some parents will do anything to delight their kids – they’ll even buy a real, live version of Peter Cottontail to give to the wee ones on Easter morning, without foreseeing that three months later, a bigger Peter could easily be abandoned in his hutch in the back yard.

“Easter’s coming, and people do stupid things like buy chicks and bunnies, and after a few days, the kids will lose interest,” says Tracy Martin, a rabbit lover and graphic designer for an advertising agency in Spokane. “If you are bringing any living creature in the house, you are promising them you will take care of them. You have to think twice. They’re not toys.”

Martin, 41, is currently employing her advertising resources to promote awareness of what she says is a local rabbit abandonment issue.

She also wants to remind parents about the responsibility involved in caring for rabbits, and reinforce that rabbits are so much more than fun and cheap Easter gift.

Martin has purchased advertising billboards that feature a tough love message in bold letters: “Small animal. Big responsibility. Rabbits are NOT Easter toys.”

Martin also has a Web site with some basic information on rabbit care, and links to larger networks like the National House Rabbit Society and Petfinder.org. Her Web site, rabbitron.com, is a tribute to her long-passed fury companion, Rabbitron.

Martin is not only a passionate advocate but also a caretaker for many neglected and abandoned rabbits.

“Abandonment is a problem here,” she says. “If I hear of a problem, I go and get the rabbit.”

Martin and her husband Max Martin, 49, have converted the back yard of their cozy home near downtown Spokane into a rabbit haven, complete with two smaller rabbit cottages and a garage-sized shed with both heating and air conditioning. Everything was built by Max and 20 domesticated rabbits currently live there.

Martin adopted all 20 from local shelters, or rescued them from the wild. Some of Martin’s rabbits were pent up in a cages, discarded by a picky breeder or put on Easter bunny “death-row.”

Toby, the rabbit Martin uses in her advertisements, was a typical “death row” inmate. Martin picked him up last fall at a shelter in Coeur d’Alene not even fully grown.

Although the background of each rabbit is different, the number of bunnies sold in Spokane around Easter compared to the number of bunnies found in shelters in the fall suggests a growing number of cases like Toby’s.

Spokane’s Northwest Seed and Pet sells “about 25 bunnies a month, and it usually doubles at about Easter time,” says Gretchen Hoffmann, a retail sales employee in the pet department.

While many rabbits do go to good homes, in reality, a group equal in size to Northwest Seed and Pet’s entire Easter inventory can be found three months later in local shelters.

Diane Rasmussen, a volunteer and outreach coordinator for the Spokane Humane Society, reports that they receive anywhere between 50 and 70 rabbits a year, the bulk of them shortly after Easter.

“It’s when the kids don’t want to be responsible anymore; about two to four months after that we get the influx,” Rasmussen says.

Kit Jagoda, a District 81 teacher who owns and runs River’s Wish Animal Sanctuary in Spokane, also adopts abandoned rabbits.

Jagoda says that 99 percent of her rabbits come from the Spokane County Animal Shelter and the Spokane Humane Society.

“They contact us when the rabbits have been there for some time and no one is looking at them or when they run out of room,” she says.

Thumpqua, the rabbit section of River’s Wish, currently houses 75 spayed and neutered rabbits. This shelter, whose name comes from the Spokane Indian word for ‘rabbit,’ takes in about five rabbits a month.

Martin says the hidden costs of rabbit care is something few people realize.

“Any animal that cost less than $10 is considered amusement for a short time,” Martin says. “People don’t realize that’s the least of what they’re going to cost. A rabbit costs more to be spayed or neutered, since they’re considered an exotic pet.”

The cost for a spaying or neutering can run as high as $100. “This is what I spend my money on,” Martin says, adding that access to veterinary care for rabbits is limited.

The most common precursor to abandonment is when children grow tired of the daily chore of feeding and cleaning the rabbits’ cages, says Martin.

In the rabbit’s defense, she claims that this loss of interest reflects the effort that families put into getting to know the animal and appreciating its more subtle social nature.

“A lot of people say, ‘Rabbits are boring,’ ” she says. “Well, you’ll never know that if all you do is put them in a hutch in the back yard. A rabbit’s place is in the house; they should be a part of the family. They require as much attention as a dog or cat.”

So, to some, it may seem like a more humane choice to let a neglected rabbit run wild with its own kind.

But Martin says this poor alternative often results in rabbits being hit by cars, starving to death or being captured quickly by predators.

For the rabbits that do make it to shelters, adoption also presents a dilemma, says Jagoda, who has many of her rabbits posted on Petfinder.com.

“It is extremely difficult to find good homes for rabbits…at least around here,” Jagoda says. “I want the rabbits to be house rabbits but many consider them livestock. I do not advertise in the paper because nine times out of 10 I will get calls from people who either want to give us their rabbits or from people that I don’t want to adopt out to…example, a hutch in the back yard.”

To owners who are looking for a new home for their rabbit and want to prevent possible adoption fiascos, Jagoda recommends posting an ad on Petfinder.com, screening the adoption homes, asking the adopters plenty of questions and charge an adoption fee.

“If they are not willing to do any of this then they should consider contacting an animal shelter or rescue group,” Jagoda says. “They should never let the rabbit loose.”

Despite her message to exercise discipline in buying pets for children and prevent further abandonment problems in Spokane, Martin would still encourage adoption or purchase of a rabbit, as long the potential owner has considered all the pros and cons and done all the necessary research.

Martin could fill pages with a list of perks of having pet rabbits. She gives, as one example, the fact that she can easily take a couple along with her on long family trips.

“They’re great companions on the road,” Martin says. “Chewy and Skipper went all the way to California and the beach.”

Martin’s commitment to her four-footed friends will continue to be a long-term one, regardless of whether her project succeeds or not.

“Ultimately, I see myself always having a rabbit,” she says. “I’m hoping I can inspire people to love rabbits as much as I do, that I can change their perception of rabbits. If I can help change that, that would be the best goal of all.”