Monday, April 2, 2007

SPCA warns against impulse purchase of bunnies for pets

Richard Watts
Times Colonist

Friday, March 30, 2007

The SPCA is putting out a warning to any parent planning to pass out live, pet bunnies this Easter — think very carefully.

Penny Stone, general manager for the Victoria SPCA, points out rabbits bite, they scratch and they kick. They are also cage animals. That means regular cleaning, a chore that soon bores most children. And rabbits live 10 to 15 years.

“Rabbits aren’t really a good kid’s pet and people get them for their kids,” said Stone, whose shelter was housing 45 abandoned bunnies yesterday.

She said people should keep in mind a rabbit is a natural “prey animal.” And that means the creature lives in a perpetual state of fear, always ready to lash out with its powerful hind legs.

And while rabbits can, to some extent, be house-trained they are still a little messy.

“They are a harder pet than a cat,” said Stone.

The bunny warning comes a time of year that sees unthinking parents buy them as Easter gifts for their children. All too often these animals are abandoned.

The University of Victoria and the Victoria General Hospital have been habitual dumping grounds for unwanted pet rabbits.

Patty Pitts, UVic spokesman, also issued a plea from the university Friday: Please don’t abandon any unwanted bunnies on campus where they are already a problem the university expects to consider in the coming weeks.

Pitts said rabbits abandoned on campus fall prey to hawks, eagles and dogs whose owners let them run off leash despite warnings. They also routinely get run over by cars.

“A pet rabbit does not live a happy life up here,” said Pitts.

Many pet stores, meanwhile, seem to be trying to get out of the bunny business, particularly around Easter when impulse buyers pick them up.

Petcetera announced earlier this week it will no longer sell pet rabbits.

Beginning in April, all Lower Mainland Petcetera stores will instead act as satellite adoption centres, in connection with the SPCA, to find homes for rescued rabbits. The program will be in place across B.C. by Sept. 1.

Other Victoria pet stores are taking action on their own.

Allan Larkins, general manager of Creatures Great and Small, 770 Bay St., said he won’t sell rabbits at Easter time, simply to avoid the impulse buyer.

“It’s not ethical. It’s not what we should be doing as a pet store,” said Larkin.