Uhmmm is that even legal to do? I can’t believe she would go in public saying that – I would be really scared of people coming to my house in a rage. I’ve got a few hours before class…I’ll see what I can do too.

That’s so horrible and sad. I wish I lived closer to be able to help. Great work trying to help the bunnies, Brittany.

I have all kinds of issues with helping this woman. It’s sad for the rabbits but this woman is a breeder who is threatening to kill these rabbits and has a deadline. There has to be much more to this story than is being told and I don’t believe that animal control doesn’t deal with rabbits and it not doing what they can either. No for certain, animal control obviously cannot take in 100 rabbits because they just don’t have that capacity. But that is not to say they haven’t been trying.

I also have to question if a rescuer purchasing these rabbits is just not perpetuating the problem – that seems very much against what rescues should be doing. I guess I have to say that perhaps the message is getting out that rabbits are not low maintenance pets and as you can see this just happens to be after Easter.

Sorry for the rant and be so cynical – I would be sad to see these rabbits destroyed but I have a hard time justifying helping a breeder who cannot afford her “stock”. And I’d love to know the real story behind this too.

I think that there’s another story here too. I found this with a super quick Google search: http://asci.uvm.edu/equine/law/cruelty/fl_cruel.htm

828.12. Cruelty to animals

(1) A person who unnecessarily overloads, overdrives, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance or shelter, or unnecessarily mutilates, or kills any animal, or causes the same to be done, or carries in or upon any vehicle, or otherwise, any animal in a cruel or inhumane manner, is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.

I don’t understand how she can go on TV saying she will put all of these rabbits down and NOT get cited for a misdemeanor. Further, I thought that there had to be some lawful obligation of both law officers and [public] humane societies to assist these animals.

Oh I just saw that they have been rescued/bought! I hate the fact that she got money for them- she should have to deal with the debt herself. I am glad that they are being transported out though. Maybe a charge or two will come out of it. Hopefully the rescuers have time to take pictures of the living conditions. I would be highly suspect if nothing came over this.. Especially because it seems like Florida has solid laws against animal cruelty.

Yup, it was a nice sales ploy. Reminded me of the internet scam where someone found and rescued a poor little bunlet and then was going to eat him if he didn’t get 30,000 dollars donated via paypal because that is what it would cost to care for the rabbit throughout its lifespan.

BTW, did anyone even blink when she apparently already had the gas, the gas chamber and even knew how they went? She’s done it before and a few times at least.

Oh, and if there’s anyone in the area, stop by again a couple weeks before Easter next year (if not sooner).  She’ll have a full house again.

I totally agree Mark.

And using the gas chambers for rabbits is unfortunately perfectly legal since they don’t fall under the same protection according to the other news story they did on these rabbits that had the animal control out and found the animals to be in fine condition although the breeder just doesn’t have the time to care or feed them any longer.

MarkBun and Sarita: Do you think it was the right move to pay for them? I’m NOT trying to start an argument here! I can see both sides of the argument. One the one hand, you have all of these helpless rabbits that deserve a chance at life and I think a lot of people feel as though they have a moral responsibility to help them. On the other hand, the rescuers must be having some thought like, “Did I just FUND a another breeding operation?”
I *think* this post fits within the guidelines of this forum- I don’t want anyone to be offended. I’d like to be more involved in animal welfare and after I graduate from school, I’d like my own shelter or sanctuary. That’s neither here nor there and not the point of this post, but I’m interested in learning perspectives from people with firsthand knowledge of rescues.
I understand if you don’t want to answer this on here, or you can feel free to PM me. Not trying to be nosy, just interested.

Here’s the thing Tate,

If they weren’t bought, they would have been killed. She wouldn’t have simply given them away as she could have sold them dead as food to a local zoo.

I would have, however, had some more words for her and maybe even seen about putting into writing before purchasing them something along the lines that if she finds herself in a similar situation where she has to kill rabbits due to having too many of them, she’d agree to pay back the original cost of the rabbits sold threefold. Although sometimes just shouting at the wind, such talks can sometimes have people reconsider what they’re doing and make a small step in the right direction – especially if they’re really animal lovers that are extremely misguided.

But that fact that she’s an “Unlicensed Breeder” means that she doesn’t give any real thought to her actions of breeding/keeping rabbits. My personal hope is that she did this as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme without realizing that they don’t just eat grass and sit in a box happily – that there is more cost involved than she knew – and now she won’t do it again as it was more work and money than she expected. The fact that she had the ‘gas chamber’ though makes me doubt it a bit.

Anyways, IMO, the life of the rabbit in front of you is more important than the life of the one that isn’t there yet. And it is the same for most real rescues and sanctuaries. As this is noted by the fact that they will perform a spay on a female rabbit no matter how pregnant she is but the moment the babies are born, they’ll raise them instead of just getting rid of them as they would have three days before. Note that this is not a window into a pro life/choice discussion, just something I noted to myself when the babies at Save A Bunny were born and personally I’m behind everything that is and was done 100%.

So, in a nutshell, yes, IMO you did the right thing.

Anyways, IMO, the life of the rabbit in front of you is more important than the life of the one that isn’t there yet.

 Ah, I DO like this quote. A good perspective, for sure.

The fact that she has a gas chamber at all scares the heck out of me.

Any new updates with this Brit?

I think the Gainesville rabbit rescue and some other rescue has saved these bunnies. They had to pay the lady $637 or so to get the bunnies out of there. Ugh. At least the bunnies are safe now.

http://www.fox4now.com/story/14575203/bunnies-rescued-after-fox-4-story

*face palm*

I didn’t know nazi bunny keepers existed!

Thank goodness they are safe…what is wrong with that lady?!

I think that you could also make a decent case for blackmail. I can’t believe that the government is at least banning her from breeding and or owning animals after this! The ready to use gas also mortified me. If I lived anywhere near there I would probably be in trouble for kidnapping bunnies lol…

Yes, GRR payed the extortion fee and took this person’s rabbits.  One of the GRR people posts on rabbits online, you can see a thread about it here http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic…forum_id=1

Who the heck is that Maritza Rivera chick? She’s getting kinda crazy…

Just as an FYI, she stated in her interviews that the reason that she had to get rid of the rabbits is that she was facing bankruptcy and, as such, she would need the cash however she could get it. I will give her some props that she was going with the $8 with the dead rabbits instead of selling them as live snake food to someplace else for $10 a piece.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first one to hop a flight in February if she’s full to the brim again with rabbits in anticipation for Easter. I’ll do something then to her that I can’t repeat here on the boards because although you all would agree she’d deserve such punishment, the fact that I came up with it would make you scared of me.

But I am a big ‘eye for an eye’ fan and believe that the punishment should equal the crime.

But I am a big ‘eye for an eye’ fan and believe that the punishment should equal the crime.

Ditto!!!! Glad someone else think so too!!!

I wish I had seen this thread earlier, I follow the Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/LittleMiraclesRabbitRescue

 and their efforts and all the hoops they jumped through to get down there and get the bunnies was really amazing. Kristie flew down to do her own investigation to make sure this woman was dismantling her ‘operation’ (insert any of many bad words here) and organized any group or individual between Florida and NJ who could take in one or as many bunnies as possible along the way. She posted constantly about every step of the journey.

You have to go back quite a few pages to reach the journey posts since they do update so much, but it’s worth it to go through and read how they organized and pulled this together so quickly.

The photos of the conditions those rabbits were kept in were horrible and depressing, row after row of wire cages. LMRR has photos albums you can see how they got them out, distributed the ones they could, she rented a vehicle and started the long drive home with all the rest, giving them the best care she could while the rest of LLRR was preparing for their arrival.

You can see photos of all the bunnies in clean pens, with solid flooring, blankets and toys for the first time in their lives, most look frightened to death and afraid to move and some had bad medical problems. But in later posts and photos you can see how they’re adapting and even doing binkies now.