Langley Advance
http://www.langleyadvance.com/issues06/105106/news/105106nn12.html
Animal welfare: Busy bunny refuge reaches for help
Mercy's Reach is teeming with the little critters - and with problems.
by Angela Wiebe
Six months after launching Langley's first bunny shelter, its organizers are pulling money out of their own pockets once again to pay for improvements to the Aldergrove-based facility.
"The canopies [that cover the shelter] are not going to handle wind, come winter," said Mercy's Reach Rabbit Refuge shelter coordinator Bonnie Ayotte. Fellow member Muriel Walsof wrote a cheque for $6,500 two weeks ago to have a 30' by 30' quonset constructed over the 32 kennels and open play area.
Ayotte said the Mercy's Reach group is frustrated, because after six months of verbal support from community members, "the cheques don't show up." She added, "I'm trying to find out why people haven't been donating."
Life has been busy for the five women, as they've seen their bunny population grow from 17 to 60 since the opening of Mercy's Reach in April. However, while bunnies continue to pour in, lack of adoptions has caused the place to be overloaded. Only three bunnies have been adopted in the past six months.
Ayotte noted that the shelter has been filling up so rapidly because bunnies are often overlooked by a number of animal advocate groups. Most abandoned rabbits aren't taken in by Critter Care because they consider them to be domestic animals, not wildlife, yet hardly any SPCA locations take in bunnies because they consider them to be non-domestic.
"We're falling between the cracks," Ayotte said. "We're neither wildlife nor are we domestic. We can't get any government help."
While Mercy's Reach has dreams of running a large bunny shelter on an expanse of donated land, Ayotte noted that small donations or actions made by any level of government would make a huge difference to the future of the little critters.
She listed an online, cross-country animal rescue group directory as something that would provide much needed contact for many small, independent groups across Canada. "It wouldn't be very expensive or hard to do," Ayotte said.
She also noted that a donation of land, such as a space of the Langley Animal Protection Society's lot, could allow the group to build a permanent shelter and possibly even live on site to care for the animals around the clock, as "bunnies are a full time job." Currently, Mercy's Reach is temporarily located behind Country Feeds off of Fraser Hwy.
Aside from the specific problems of lack of government assistance and not enough community donations, Ayotte feels the ultimate problem is the way that society views rabbits - as disposable.
"If I cannot touch [the community's] hearts with these critters, we're not going to get anywhere. These guys need the help and they're wonderful and they're worth it," Ayotte said.
She longs for bunnies to be seen on the same value level as cats and dogs and that they would be considered permanent members of the family. "There's nothing cuter on this planet than a baby rabbit, but they're only little for two months," Ayotte noted, adding that people are buying the bunnies on impulse and then handing them over to Mercy's Reach.
"There's all kinds of bunnies turned in. People just don't want their pets anymore. The problem out here is bigger than anyone really knew."
Ayotte is looking for volunteers, monetary donations, and adoptive families to help save Mercy's Reach Rabbit Refuge. She can be reached at 604-626-0311.