Make All Your Critters Candy this Easter!

I started working as a volunteer with the Sacramento Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I can only work only a very few hours per week, but love it.  Here is one of their most recent press releases.

(Sacramento, California) —  At this time every year, many well-meaning parents - who think they're buying a low-maintenance starter pet – surprise their children with live rabbits.  While the idea may be tempting, young children and bunnies just aren't a good match.  Children like a companion they can cuddle and hold.  Rabbits are not passive and cuddly, they are ground-loving creatures who feel frightened when held and restrained.

Rabbits are delicate and social animals, requiring very specific care and feeding.  All too often, when the initial excitement has waned and the novelty of a live gift wears off, many Easter rabbits wind up at shelters like the Sacramento SPCA.  And others are dumped outside where they face predators, cars, illness and injury, or are resigned to lives of neglect and boredom in cramped cages. 

The Sacramento SPCA is urging parents to fill Easter baskets with chocolate bunnies, marshmallow chicks and assorted stuffed critters – not their live counterparts.  The Sacramento SPCA received 135 unwanted rabbits in 2007 – many of them Easter gifts.  Remember, an animal is a lifetime commitment, not a holiday toy to be temporarily enjoyed.

If you've decided that you really want a rabbit, do your homework first, and wait until after the Easter holiday has passed.  Rabbits can live 10 years or more with proper care. While rabbits make great pets for the right person, they aren’t for everyone, and the decision to adopt a bunny should be a well-informed one.

Established in 1894, the Sacramento SPCA is dedicated to ensuring the humane treatment of all animals in the greater Sacramento area.