Tell me if this is crazy, but I have an idea…

[KytKattin]

Okay, so every year I go to the CA state fair. It’s fun and what not with rides, agrucultire, and the arts and crafts. The 4H section is big if you take into account all the horses, cows, pigs, rabbits, goats, ect. They also have a little indoor section that has more pet animals. They typically have chinchillas, birds, cats, rats, and they even had a wild bat section last year. Anyways, I was thinking that it would be awesome for the House Rabbit Society to have a little place to hand out info about rabbits as house pets, the care they actually need (not what some 4Her would tell someone). I also thought that it would be awesome to have a ‘proper’ rabbit cage listed with the price and materials needed vs a store bought one. Plus I thought, hey, why not have some cute clicker trained rabbits to show that rabbits aren’t just boring and content to sit around in cages? And after that, why not have some shelter buns for adoption (after the normal approval and such of course!).

I am thinking about joining the HRS as well as the local chapter and then maybe presenting this idea to them, but I want to know what you girls and guys think of it. Obviously the HRS doesn’t have the thousands of dollars needed for the ‘commerical’ retail space, but since it would be an educational thing and non-profit then maybe they have something a little less pricey.

[bunnytowne]

that would be neat…..  tho I think perhaps the agility bunnies would be the hit.

[jerseygirl]

Not crazy at all, crazy not to look into it further. Lots of people going to see the animals as it is. The rabbit situation should be presented.

[KytKattin]

That’s exactly it Bunnytowne! If they have something that draws them in and entertains then they will talk about it and spread the word!

I suppose next week (after classes end) I’ll give them a holler and see what they think.

[kralspace]

That sounds like a great idea, I saw a quick clip on Fox News the other day, they showed some bunnies doing the competition jumping and no one could believe it. They all said they’re rather watch that than the horses jumping….etc.

For years I did an exhibit at the local Westfest fair. I had a corn sheller, grinder, rope maker, etc, just things for kids to do for free ( with plenty of us supervising) and we were swamped from the get-go. They loved it, the parents loved it. We had people tell us every year that that’s what the kids talked about for months.

The most popular item was the wash corner. I had a $35 hand water pump set on a barrel. The kids would pump buckets of water in buckets to dump in the tub, wash the clothes on a scrub board and hang them on the clothes line with clothes pins (most kids had never seen them before) You have never seen kids so excited, they would do it for hours.

If you have something different like the clicker bunnies, or how about a display of different ways you can build habitats (NIC condos, xpens, etc) you could really get some attention. And it would really make people see how owning a bunny is more than a hutch in the backyard. They could see how easy it is to clean, how to bunny proof, etc. Now you’ve got ME going!

[Hedi]

It sounds like a great idea but you have to get past the 4H people first. Some 4H people may not be happy that you are there. So if you come in there with this philosphy you may not get a warm welcome. I dont really know. But something to consider.
I think we did have some 4H people on here that did it when they were young that could give you some insite on how things really are where animals are concerned at the fairs.

Arent those poor bunnies at the fairs typically end up being meat rabbits or used for fur? Or for more baby bunnies for the same reasons? Thats why I dont go to state fairs. Just too sad. I would be crying the entire time wanting to take them all home with me.

[Sarita]

I kind of feel the same way as Hedi – it’s would be hard dealing with the 4H people – they have a totally different philosophy…I’ve spoken to a few and they just don’t get it. I’ve had a few email about wanting to adopt rabbits to show (and they certainly do have good intentions) but the rabbits for show must be unaltered. I recently had a woman email about a rabbit that she obviously cared enough about from her son’s 4H project to want to find a home for it and save it from being a meat rabbit but didn’t want to keep it herself when I asked about considering that…I thought it was odd in that they didn’t think about what would happen to the rabbit after the “project” or even consider keeping it as a pet.

I do think state fairs would be a tough nut to crack and it might be hard to continue to be positive.

[bunnytowne]

Yes Sarita I was thinking that too….   Thats why I said the agility bunnies would be a hit  …..    because yes 4Hers have certain ideas about rabbits being meat show or reproducing…..

If someone CAN get the agility bunnies included in the fairs 4H shows and such it will be a big start ….  then the next step about the cages and how to make them and the litterbox training and the house pet idea  …  those would have to come  last or later rather…

First get the agility bunnies in…… Thats the foot in the door….

Also after watchign them go through the jumps people will get more curiuos and the questions will come…. then you can mention house buns litterboxes and spneutering.

All in all I think this idea is an excellent one..  Not my idea I mean the person who originally posted this  (their idea)  plus the combined ideas that have come up too…

[KytKattin]

Actually, it was the 4Hers and their lack of info at the State Fair that inspired me to come up with this idea. Quite frankly, they don’t scare me, and feeling unwelcome is far from going to stop me. Especially when I think of all the rabbits that we could potentially save with a move like this. Plus 4H doesn’t run the fair. I have sent an e-mail to both the HRS and Cal Expo and will so how it goes from their. In the mean time, I have a math final to go study for!

[KatnipCrzy]

I think that most house bunny owners would not allow their bunnies to be anywhere near the 4H bunnies- so any exhibit with adoptables and trained bunnies would have to be located in a different area.

I think it is a good idea if  you have enough volunteers to keep a table/booth staffed.   But if the 4H people feel “attacked” they will most likely retaliate and any donated or low cost space can not compete with their numbers.

[KytKattin]

The Fur and Feathers section only has rabbits for a short time compared to the duration of the fair, and sometimes the show rabbits were in a different building altogether.

Why wouldn’t they want their rabbits anywhere near the other rabbits? I understand a potential for disease, but as far as I know rabbits don’t have many airborne diseases and even then the risk is probably rather low. (And I hope that doesn’t come off as snotty, I truly am curious about this!)

While that might be true that I am against them, I was not planning on attacking them, in fact, I’m rather used to dealing with 4H people in this manner as some ‘friends’ of mine breed rabbits. Hence why the main attraction would be ‘agility bunnies’ as that would keep the agenda hidden. It’s kind of like a Trojan Horse sort of deal, and hopefully they won’t realize what happened until it’s a very talked about attraction. Plus if we do end up paying for a space it would be harassment for them to retaliate in any way as we payed to be there just like they did (if they do). And as I mentioned above, the 4Hers only have rabbits for maybe a week and a half, and those are rotated through different breeds quickly so no one person is sticking around and hopefully they’d have their own stuff to worry about.

[Beka27]

I’ve read this thread with interest. While I don’t think it’s a crazy or bad idea, I also don’t know if it will work or be worth your or the HRS’ time. 4-H/breeders/outdoor-hutch-people are an entirely different group from House rabbit/rescue/rabbits-as-family members people. THAT IS NOT TO SAY that *none* of the former care about their rabbits, and not all of the latter are *ideal* bunny owners… but it can be a big US VERSUS THEM thing. Of course, everyone thinks THEY are on the right side of the debate.

I am very interested to hear the response you get back from the HRS and the Fair. Would you be willing to copy/paste the response, of course deleting any identifying info?

I’m guessing this is not their first “go-round” and they have tried things like this in the past. HRS is very familiar with the plight of 4-H and fair rabbits and I’m sure if it’s something that they’ve done and it worked, they would continue to do it each year. There may be a reason they are not there. I don’t know. I’m just thinking out loud…

[Sarita]

Yes, I’d be interested to hear the outcome too.

I do know with the group I help we are very limited on what we can actually manage to do because we are an all volunteer organization and it can be difficult to get enough volunteers scheduled for large events which may be the same situation with HRS.

[babybunsmum]

count me into the ‘interested in hearing about how it goes’ bunch too! 

my 2 cents… i think if you take a very very respectful-not-trying-to-convert-you kind of approach to it (even if you detest their opinions) you may get somewhere.  maybe not this year, or the next but you may plant a seed for the future somewhere. 

one good angle… attracting a whole previously not interested crowd to the exhibit.  personally, i would go just to see this where i would not have been interested otherwise.  also the clicker training would be a great attention-getter.  you could even set up a monitor with vids showing impressive tricks.

[KatnipCrzy]

The diseases do not have to be airborne for there to be any risk.  People can be poking their fingers in the livestock bunny cages and then be petting adoptable rabbits later.  So it could be the visitors themselves that are the transmitting any diseases or parasites (mites, lice, fleas, etc).

There may not be a high risk- but I would not take my bunnies anywhere near someone else’s bunnies that are treated like livestock.

Basically everything that the HRS believes about rabbit care conflicts with the basic concepts of livestock rabbits- so even if you do not say a word about not agreeing with how the 4H bunnies are housed- you are disagreeing with them and it could be viewed as an “attack” on age old tradtiions that have gone on for way too long (in my opinion).

I know I would not be happy to see a 4H booth with rabbits at a Household Pet Expo- they promote something that I do no believe in.   So I am assuming they in turn would not be happy to see us at the livestock event promoting something they don’t necessarily agree upon.

I think it would be better to target people that already have more of an open mind- doing expos at pet stores that do not sell baby bunnies- attending other pet expos and other pet related or family events.

[KytKattin]

Katnip, while I agree that other options can and do promote house rabbits as pets, the State Fair gets upwards of 40,000 people per day for a few weeks, more on weekends! That is a huge amount of people even if only a quarter of them pass by the booth. I do like your idea for an expo though, and will look into that as well (even though I think averages there are more like 25,000 for the whole show). Plus open minded people aren’t the problems, it’s the general public that causes most of the problems. The risk for transferring disease is certainly there, but there are precautions that other exhibitors use, such as having hand sanitizer for anyone who wants to pet the animal and a two finger rule. As my rabbits are survivors of abuse, I feel that they would choose to do this if they could in order to help prevent the same thing happening to another rabbit. Maybe I’m forcing my feelings on my rabbits and that makes me no better than a 4H person, but I truly believe in what I’m doing.

The State Fair is a place where Californians show what they are doing, be it raising livestock, art, education, or something else. I wouldn’t dream of setting up a booth at a 4H show, but the State Fair does not belong to them. So I really hope I get a chance to do this. They have other crazy things like turkey racing, pig racing, so why not rabbit agility (that just so happens to be backed by the HRS)?

[Willow-bunny]

That would be amazing.

[KytKattin]

Oh and I got a reply from the HRS!

“As far as I know, HRS has never done any outreach or education at the State Fair. In trying to find some info online, all I could gather was that commercial booths are very expensive ($3000+), and the deadline to apply for one was back in February.

I think your idea is a good one, and I hope that they get back to you with good news. Let me know if we can help in any other way.

Shelter Manager”

So now I just have to hope that Cal Expo gets back to me with some news, good or not. And if not this year, maybe next year.

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