Northumberland Rabbit & Small Animal Rescue

[meg1]

Hi All,

Just thought I would post information about the above group. We have been running for 1 month in the north of England and already have 34 rabbits in need of rehoming. We are now at full capacity.The latest admissions were 4 babies who had been found in a drain near drowning. We are neutering and vaccinating all the bunnies that come to us, and we are vetting all prospective homes as our bunnies deserve the best after the trauma they have suffered.

If anyone in the north of england is interested in adopting a bunny from us, the site is nrsarescue.org

Thanks

[MarkBun]

Meg,

Thank you for starting another rescue. AS you can tell by becoming full in under a month, they are desperately needed. If you have a paypal account, I would be happy to send a small donation (especially since the Euro is doing better than the Dollar) your way as soon as payday hits at the end of the month.

[meg1]

That is incredibly generous of you. We have raised money through rafles and car boot sales, but as fast as we are making it, the animals need to see the vet, so it’s a bit of a nightmare scenario! My credit card is maxed out.

If you want to send a donation, it would be really welcome. You can make it payable to Northumberland Rabbit & Small Animal Rescue. We are hoping to start a “Sponsor a Rabbit” programme for the bunnies who have been too traumatised to be rehomed. I’ll post information as soon as I have it. If you give me your email I will pm you the address to send it to, rather than put personal addresses on the web.

The bunnies appreciate your kindness!

[kimberleyanddarren]

where abouts are u? i live in Birmingham, i think im pretty much the only regular english user here lol

[meg1]

We are covering the Wearside/Tyneside areas, and have bases in Sunderland and Newcastle – when I say Bases though I mean two houses full of bunnies! lol

[kimberleyanddarren]

lol who could think of a better house?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hi Meg

Congrats and thanks for starting a rescue-they are definitely needed.

I’ve got some money saving ideas for you, sorry if you’re already doing them!!

Do you have vets doing discount/probono/atcost vet care for you yet? Have you been able to look into it? Often they can give rescues cheaper or free vet care. That may help with the credit card. If not, try phoning (or having a volunteer phone) around to request some help from all the vets in the area. Offer to recommend them or promo thier clinic name in exchange

Also, for your hay, can you buy hay by the bale to save money where you are-rather then from a petstore? A small bag of hay at the store here costs eleven dollars and its’s two bucks a bale, so definitley a money saver

Post on craigslist and kijji for donated items-we get lots of response through these and if you offer pickup for donations you get even more help. Also you can post rabbits for adoption on there to get your name out a bit too!

Put signs up in petstores (if they allow) asking customers if they want to purchase items from a wishlist and leave them at the store for you to pickup for the rescue. It’s a convenient way to donate and many stores will allow you to do that, and even discount items purchased for the rescue.

GOOD LUCK and thanks again, you must have a big heart to get this going and spend so much time

[charlie82]

So pleased to hear there is another rescue establishing up North (i’m from Washington). So far we only really have pawz 4 thought, a few people who are rescuing from their home, and Bunny Burrows which is down in Richmond so not really that local.

If you have not already done so, you can register in ‘Rabbit rehome’ and their forum, ‘rabbits united’ in order to advertise bunnies. I’m off to check out your website now!

[meg1]

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. I have made notes and will investigate all avenues!!

At the moment I’m starting to think that there are no sensible people left in the world as I’ve had quite a few unsuccessul home visits where it has turned out, the person just wanted a bunny on a whim and really had no idea what was involved. I’m also finding it incredibly frustrating that people just seem to get a rabbit as a novelty. I have had a lot of calls asking if I could take rabbits away as the children were now bored with them. GRR GRR It makes me want to tear my hair out. sigh.

[charlie82]

You will have to get used to that….I have had dealings with horrid people that quite honestly make me hate the human race. I find rescuing makes you feel emotionally drained and hard faced because you have to deal with mindless people, and what’s worse is that you have to try and stay calm when dealing with them in order to get them to hand the animal over….when really all you want to do is smack them over the head. Sad thing is that it seems people’s attitudes towards animal welfare is just not changing, even with the new animal welfare act. I’ve had to stop going into my local pet supply store because I couldn’t hold my tongue when people were coming in the shop and the advice they were getting from the owner was appalling. He doesn’t even realise the importance of hay in a rabbits diet and see’s it just as a form of bedding. A customer asked what was best to use…straw or hay…. his reply was the Straw because they would eat the hay but not the straw!! I pointed out that they NEEDED the hay. What amazed me more was that the people purchasing the hay had all sorts of animals, rabbits, birds, chinchilla’s but did not even know that their rabbits needed hay more than anything else.
He sells rabbits to people without even sexing them, if you ask what sex they are he just makes it up because he doesn’t know how to check. He always gets baby bunnies in when they are 4 weeks old because it gives him longer to sell them. I’d love to know who the breeders are that he gets them from because I would also have to give them a piece of my mind.

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