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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A A question of Bunny ethics I suppose?

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    • jackwabbit
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      2 posts Send Private Message

        Hello all,
        And I’m a wordy person.
        I apologize for incorporating my Introduction with my question, but what I thought I had settled in my brain, I am now second guessing.
        I am a dog groomer, I have been for 35 years, I currently work from home (the past 12 years) and groom dogs on my sunroom. 
        Despite what might immediately spring to your mind, my clients are regular, the dogs, (generally about 6 a day, Mon-Thurs) are well behaved and it’s not a barking zoo here.  The noisy parts of dog grooming (blow drying) all happen downstairs in the basement.

        I also (currently) own multiple Siberian Huskies (5) and 3 lazy cats.

        25 years ago, when I managed a dog boarding kennel, an AC Officer that inspected us on a regular basis, called me out of the blue, pleading for me to take the last 8 of 200+ rabbits confiscated from a neglect situation.  This group of Bunnies were considered unadoptable for one reason or another, all valid reasons back then and slated for euth at 8 pm that night.
        Blah, blah, blah, I drove my questionable Chevy Citation to the Shelter in a snowstorm, and the AC gal essentially snuck the Bunnies out the back door in cardboard cat carriers, we loaded them up, and Home they came with me.
        2 *pelted* Angoras that could barely move, several aggressive biters, and my dear *Flash* – who I NEVER figured out why he was *unadoptable*, beautiful, sweet, Burmese cat colored “Flash”.

        Super fast forward, over 20+ years.
        I’ve always ended up adopting 2 *unadoptables* because one of my clients was a head of AC in the County I’ve now lived in for the past 18 years, and he would call and appeal to me.

        I’ve never been happy with my Bunny’s environment.  Never. 
        Since the original overwhelming group of 8 passed away (natural attrition, old age, mammary cancer in 1) I’ve kept on with 2 “unadoptables”.  Typically Bunnies that were turned in to the shelter as “Biters” (lol..ok…but they of course were NOT,)
        My Bunnies do not hop around the house happily like a cat or dog (as they would be killed), but rather spend 90% of their lives in 4X4X4 cages.  2 cages, 1 atop the other.  They are set up in my sunroom, where I am all day, but due to the overwhelming number of cords, they just can’t bop around loose.
        They have always been fed a Bunny appropriate diet, even before that came to light, as my partner was a vet.
        The little kids that accompany their parents when dogs are dropped off for grooming, have always ONLY had eyes for the Buns, and I’ve allowed them to give the 2 *resident* Buns a baby carrot, etc.

        So, to sum.
        I lost Sunny Bunny, a red Loppy something, 1.5 years ago.  She was 13 yrs old, I had her from about 1 yr old one.
        I lost my second of the 2 *Rescues*, Jack, (ironically, also a reddish Loppy type) last November, at the age of nearly 15.

        I have not been able to take their double-decker *apartment* off/out of my grooming room, even though it’s been 6 months since Jack died.
        I was so close tonight, but then started struggling with the whole “quality of life”, living in a cage 90% of their lives, vs….giving a doomed rabbit another decade of comfortable life, but not necessarily “quality”…as in bopping freely around the house?

        Please, do understand, I am NOT, nor have  ever been, set up to provide a safe environment…cords, huskies, cats, for a Bun to hop freely around my home.
        I would love some un-bashing input, but my gut tells me…let the Bunny Habitats go, let Jackwabbit be the last one I saved?


      • Bam
        Moderator
        16836 posts Send Private Message

          Thank you for saving so many bunnies in the past and giving them long, good lives. I’m pretty sure that if a bunny doesn’t have a good life, it won’t live as long as yours did.

          Your ethics question is of course difficult to answer. It probably has to do with your personal feelings more than anything. Maybe it’d be painful for you if you saved another rabbit and felt you didn’t provide it with the amount of free “bopping around” you would wish it could have. Could you make a little play-pen area for a rabbit to bop around in, like an X-pen connected to the condo? Lots of cords are of course hazardous, but you can use cable covers like IKEA’s Rabalder, a rabbit can still gnaw through them but not in an instant, so it gives you time during supervised playtime to save the cord.

          In the end, I do think you should do what your heart and gut tell you.

          PS: We don’t bash people here =)


        • Gina.Jenny
          Participant
          2244 posts Send Private Message

            Just a thought, but guinea pigs don’t need the floor space that rabbits do? Maybe you could consider rescuing a guinea pig or two, instead of rabbits, and giving them a good home? The cages you describe would give them ample space!

            You mention living 90% of their lives in the cages? If buns get a good run around out of the cage for an hour a couple of times a day, ideally around sunrise and sunset, then they will happily doze the day and night away, whether they are in or out of their cage?


          • Love4Bunny
            Participant
            878 posts Send Private Message

              Wow, 13 and 15 years? That’s amazing. I agree with Bam, you gotta do what you feel you need to do. Guilt has a way of eating at us if we do, or if we don’t. I have to be at peace with the long term decisions I make, and I almost got a guinea pig, till I realised I wanted to invest more time into all my current animals. I didn’t feel it was fair to them to have me spread so thinly. I can do it all, but at what cost? That’s how I came to my decision. I still think you deserve to give yourself enough credit for doing this for so long, to the best of your ability with your already full household. It doesn’t have to mean goodbye forever – maybe just goodbye, for now. If the cage has sentimental value, you could create a photo collage/ wall hanging or some sort of tribute to help with closure of that season of your life. If you ever decide to go back to it again, you can always repurchase second-hand cages later, and create a bigger set-up – one you would be proud of.


            • jackwabbit
              Participant
              2 posts Send Private Message

                Thank you for all your sage advice and words, much appreciated.

                I have decided that I am going to take a break from rescuing the “unadoptable” buns for a while.
                As pointed out, if I change my mind, I can always purchase another set-up, perhaps one that eases my guilt a bit more.

                If there had been any way at all that I could have given the bunnies more out time, or better a better exercise plan, trust me, I would have.
                Everything changed when I started to groom from home 12 years ago, and had to convert the sunroom (the bun’s habitat area) into my grooming room.
                My house is tiny, more of a cottage, so with the 3 cats and the huskies in the house proper, it’s never been practical or safe to have the buns bopping around inside the actual house.

                Honestly, had I known the few years prior to the big job change, I never would have taken Jack and Sunny on in the first place.
                But by then, there was no way I was going to re-home them, and certainly no way they were going to be returned to the shelter, as with their history…there was only 1 clear outcome.

                So thank you again for helping me let myself off the guilt hook a little.

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            Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A A question of Bunny ethics I suppose?