"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist. 1901 - 1978

Day after day, year after years, decade after decade, the SPCA killed most rabbits and kept a few in tiny cages. It inflicted "distress" on these helpless creatures as bad as the distress it inflicted on dogs and cats in cages, but there were far fewer people speaking for the rabbits than there were for cats and dogs. About the best that can be said for the rabbits is that the SPCA killed most of them before they had a chance to suffer long or get sick as the cats and dogs did. Those it could sell it did, and it did not question how the sold rabbits would be treated or used. At some SPCAs, the rabbits and small animals were kept in windowless rooms or sheds.

What is the SPCA doing keeping animals in cages anyway? Animal welfarists do not keep animals in cages. But animal sellers and controllers keep animals in cages for display and for the absolute minimum expense and bother.

For decades, "rabbit people" tried to rescue as many as they could from the SPCA, but the flood of unwanted rabbits is beyond the capabilities of anyone to deal with. In the meanwhile, the SPCA partnered with Petcetera, one of the biggest marketers of baby rabbits in Canada. This partnership has resulted in much financial benefit to the SPCA.

In the last two years, rabbit rescuers started to get noisy, started to attract the media, started to complain to mayors and councils about the SPCAs treatment of rabbits. As always with the SPCA, it takes determination and the courage to tell the facts to force it to make any humane changes.

But as with all reform of the SPCA, there is a long, rough road still to travel. Remarks by SPCA managers such as "We kill a lot of cats, why not rabbits?" and "Why do rabbits need more room when we kill them anyway", have been made in the recent past when rabbit rescuers have asked for improvements. Thoughtful, committed rabbit rescuers deserve the credit for these minimal improvements.