oh my. how many is LOTS? i’m glad that woman is getting ahold of you, but it makes me wonder why she has not done something already, before mom was physically and mentally ill… i also wonder where you stand as far as taking in bunnies if she does not want them taken from her.

I’ve had to deal with this as well…very difficult situation.

First you will need to get the lady to release the rabbits to you if this is indeed the situation. Secondly there is not guarantee that this behavior will not continue after you have taken the rabbits and there is nothing you can legally do about it.

You best get the WHOLE story about the situation before you make any decision.

As far as Beka says – if she won’t release them to you – you do not have any legal recourse. You will have to get someone else involved and it can get very complicated. Even here in Texas animal control cannot just come into a home without a warrant and take any animals.

OH wow.  Hoarding is a mental illness in itself.  Sad. Hope this goes good for the buns sake. I wonder how many she has.

keep us posted!

Just wanted to see how things go…good luck!

Oh wow!  That’s sad  

The first thing I thought of when I saw “hoarder” was the woman they took the bunnies from earlier in the year, from which we got Keelie and Kylie. She had well over 200 didn’t she?
– Annette

I just don’t understand why people do things like this. But then again maybe the daughter thinks like 6 or 7 is “lots” and it won’t be as bad as all that. Let’s hope anyways.

Lots of reasons. If they’re all acquired (as opposed to born there) then it could be she thinks she’s saving them from terrible fates. If some of them are born there then it could be that she’s just ignorant about how quickly rabbits breed. Or it could be that she intentionally let them breed because baby bunnies are just so cute. Or it could be that she intentionally let them breed because she’s lonely and has this misguided notion that she can fill that emptiness by having little bunnies to look afer, and keeps letting them breed so she always has that nurturing role to play. Or maybe the daughter thinks that anything more than 2 is “lots”.
– Annette

I’ll keep good thoughts going for you and these bunnies, K&K! Please let this be a simple seizure and let those forever homes for these bunnies be getting warmed up and ready to take them!

Oh no – good luck! Those hoarding situations can get so out of hand so quickly….keep us updated on what happens – if its a very huge situation hopefully some other shelters can help you out.

Dealing with hoarders is always tough.  There is usually some type of mental disability involved that allows it to reach the stage where someone needs to step in and help.  It is often difficult to convince the person that they are not helping the animals by accumulating so many and allowing them to breed- and they often just start over again anyway.  Not to disregard their love for their pets- but it just seems twisted to me that someone gets more pets than they can physically and financially care for.

It seems as though the 2 extremes really seem to get to us Binky Bunny’ers- the hoarders and the “craigslisters”.  It is so upseting to read the reasons of why they list the bunnies on craigslist- as usually it is completely bull. 

Anyway- I hope that you have a better system in Canada that helps to step in and help with hoarders.  Here in the US they do have laws or ordinances in place per township that states how many dogs, cats or dogs/cats total you may own.  But they are only ever enforced in the extreme type situations such are hoarders.  I am actually over ordinance in the number of cats that I have- but they are strictly indoors so it will never be an issue as they are well cared for.

Julie

wow i hope its more like 12 than 80 lol good luck!

I would e-mail. There may be bunnies in need! I would just say something like, “Just following up on your e-mail and wondering if we can do anything to help your situation.”

No, I think you have done what you can do for now.

I would wait for them to make the next move.

I think you need to find out how many first of all – this will be an ENORMOUS expense and most likely there will be babies and stuff so spaying right away will be very necessary.

Basically the hoarder I worked with had some very mental problems – she did not want to give us all her rabbits (around 70 in all) and we took them in slowly except for the last bunch when we just took them all. She called me all the time (I was the “good cop”) because she was lonely. The first time we went we separated the rabbits and did an evaluation and took only the sick ones and made arrangements to get the possible pregnant ones spayed locally (she was 2 hours from the sanctuary) and we had 2 local lifesaver volunteers to help us – it was EXTREMELY hard on them. She kept mixing up the rabbits too and even had a litter after we separated – she truly did not know how that happened (of course she made it happen).

We did just end up taking the rest of the rabbits and leaving her with none – we basically had to scare her to get them and her family was behind us too so that helped ALOT.

It took a huge emotional and financial toll on our organization but we were glad at that time we could do it.

The problem of course is we have no idea if she has started this again – we told her family we could only help her once….

^^^wow! thank goodness for folks like you. i think that would be so hard… it would be difficult holding my tongue…

Any word, K&K? I feel so bad for the animals and the people (because they really do seem ill and sad) in these situations… There was an awful Animal Planet show that had a hoarder who had rabbits everywhere in her house. On those shows, if the hoarder has dogs or cats, they always follow up with how the rescued animals got adopted out to happy new families. They didn’t do that on the bunny-episode. Probably because they euthanized them all. I’m so glad organizations like yours are out there to be more humane than the Humane Societies sometimes are!

^^^grrr. that upsets me. i like the animal rescue shows. they’re hard to watch at times but i make myself. that annoys me that they wouldn’t follow up with the buns…

Speaking from experience – I would not go chasing this because I guarantee you that there will be other rabbits out there to help if they do not get back with you.

Yes, you will worry but at this point you don’t know anything – you are just speculating until they decide to get back with you – if they do. All you can hope is that they have taken care of the situation if you don’t hear back from them or found help elsewhere.

After all you have rabbits in your care currently that do need your attention and care that you have been able to help.

Sarita makes a great point… there’s always going to be more needing your help and attention. i know it’s hard waiting and wondering…