Wham, Bam, Thank You Dan: Ratting Out the Rabbits?
When the BC SPCA and Petcetera announced in March 2007 they would be working on a program to place adoptable rabbits in Petcetera locations, when the SPCA indicated in its March 2007 newsletter that this program would be in place across BC by September 2007, when the March 28, 2007 article in the Vancouver Sun stated that rabbits sales in Petcetera stores would be phased out in Lower Mainland locations ... well, let's just say I was guardedly optimistic that some small, positive moment forward in rabbit welfare would be achieved.
Fast forwarding to February 2008, past all the abandoned and feral rabbits in Kelowna, Nanaimo, Richmond, Vernon and Victoria what do we find but Petcetera still selling bunnies, maybe not in the Lower Mainland but certainly in Nanaimo and .... well, some of the other places that appear to have feral rabbit populations or dumped rabbit issues.
Perhaps the SPCA and I were for once sharing a common fantasy when we imagined Petcetera phasing out rabbit sales ACROSS BC. I can see no reason for the SPCA to make a public statement around Petcetera's replacing rabbits for sale with adoptable rabbits across the Province unless they had grounds to do so. Perhaps Nanaimo and those other Petcetera locations have secretly seceded from the province.
Whatever the reason for Dan Urbani's continued sale of rabbits in Petcetera locations (and why is it, Dan, that with Petcetera's commitment to reducing pet overpopulation issues and much vaunted PAWS Program rabbits never seem to quite make it officially into PAWS?), whatever the reason for the SPCA's apparent silence on this issue, with February being Adopt a Rescued Rabbit month and Easter on the horizon, we are once again asking you to:
Unless you are willing to make that 10 year commitment to a live bunny, eat chocolate rabbits and don't buy a live animal, get a stuffed toy. Let's face it, the chocolate will last about as long as Petcetera's commitment to rabbit welfare, and the toy will last longer.