Advice needed....

[undergunfire]

There is a house that I pass every day going to work. The house is kind of crappy (definititely for our town), and they have a fenced off back yard.

Their fenced off backyard houses a couple goats, sheep, chickens, AND rabbits.

It is HOT outside in Arizona, our town reaching up to 105 degrees on some days. The weather lately has been cool and rainy, some-what humid though.

All the animals in this back yard have free-range, including the rabbits. Every day when we drive by the house, I look at the poor bunnies and feel bad for them. They have to live with chickens and in a dirty backyard.


Well....just a little while ago Ryan and I were driving home from work. What did I happen to see on the side of the road near some grass and thick bushes by the house with the "petting zoo"?.....

A LOOSE RABBIT :shock:!


The bunny was white with some golden broken pattern. I freaked and made Ryan turn around. We spend atleast 10 minutes trying to get inside of the thick-tree branch like bushes to get to the bunny. It is almost impossible to get in there without loosing an eye or ripping an ear off on a branch.

Then what do I see next? A BABY bunny. He was white with a blue broken pattern. Then what do I see next? ANOTHER bunny, yep...a little guy. He looked just like my Morgan, only darker and no Harlequin markings.


It really is impossible to catch them with out a net. Even with a net, I am not sure how we would get it into the bushes without it getting caught on the branches.

With further investigating of the little area (the backyard of another person's house), I noticed the bunnies (or that mommy bunny) has made little tunnels and it looks like that is their "home base".

My guess is that the broken golden colored bunny is the mom...and she is having babies in that area.



The people who live in that house have atleast 10 bunnies, if not more...hiding some where. I am not sure if they mixed up the sexes of the rabbits, or if they just don't care that the bunnies are reproducing, or they don't know because the rabbit is loose.

Ryan and I took down their address and I am about to "dex-online" it to see if they have a phone number. I would like to call them and talk with them to let them know about the issue here. Domesticated rabbits are loose and reproducing, this is not good.



I would like to know how I should go about this. Should I call the people? Should I go by their house later or tomorrow to see if they are home and bring packets of rabbit care information with me?

I am really people shy, so I am nervous about this. I don't want to call animal control right now, seeing as they may not even investigate it...or they may take the rabbits and euthanize them.




Help ?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Oh Amy, this is just terrible. If you were able to catch them, what did you plan on doing with them? Fostering or keeping them? Are either of these options? I only ask because I'm wondering if it's possible to cut through the brush a bit?

I'd definitely try either calling or actually, going in person would be best. They probably just don't care unfortunately. I know this is very sad and basically, all I've been hearing on here lately. It's awful.

I wouldn't want to get animal control involved unless you knew for sure what they would do. You could call them and play dumb and ask I suppose and go from there.

This isn't of much help, but it's all I can think of at the moment.

 

[undergunfire]

It is obvous that the rabbits have NO socialization, so calling animal control is something I don't really want to do. They would be euthanized in a second.

Over the next few days, Ryan and I are going to keep going back to that spot again with big nets and some tree branch cutters, hopefully we can catch the baby or the mom. I would hate for the baby to be a boy, then turn around and breed with the mother.

I think I would prefer to catch one of them, then go to the person's house and explain the situation to them, telling them that their rabbits are getting loose and breeding in an area by their house, and tell them the dangers of it.

If they don't do anything about the rabbits, as in repairing their fence so they can't espape anymore....atleast I saved one of the buns from breeding and reproducing more.


Within a week of notifying the people, and they don't have their fence fixed (ex: rabbits still loose outside the fence), then I will call animal control and hopefully they just give them "so and so" days to repair it, or they take the animals.

I think it's a bad place for the animals. The sheep is heavily matted and very dirty...he must be having fungal stuff going on under that thick big matted coat right now, due to the rain and moisture. I can't even imagine what the sheep feels in the 100 degree weather with that matted coat, having no space to breathe.




Which is the better option? Taking pictures of the property, sheep, loose rabbits, ect and going to Animal Control and letting them know and risk them being euthanized....or allow the animals to stay there and suffer?



EDIT TO ADD: To answer your question, Crystal. I really want to atleast catch the baby, then go from there. He has big huge NZ type ears and the cutest little blue nose. I think I love the little guy already, even though you can tell he is a trouble maker and just doesn't know any better than to RUN.

I should put my "Amy, no you can not have any more bunnies" hat on right now.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

But, the mom will obviously just get pregnant again, right? You say there are like 10? This is just not a good situation. They need to be separated until they can be fixed, but, like that is going to happen. Maybe the owners will understand and do something about it responsibly, but that seems kinda far fetched, ya know?

I wish you and Ryan good luck with this, and I'm glad he is willing to help you with this.

 

[undergunfire]

I am so happy that Ryan is willing to help me as well. I wish Ryan and I had work off tomorrow, so that we could spend most of the day trying to catch the bunnies.

We saw the bunny that looked like Morgan run back through the fence, so they can get in and out of the fence easily.

I REALLY hope that the goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits aren't all being feed the SAME food...like just goat pellets and corn thrown onto the group, but I have this feeling that that is what they are getting.


I just posted an ad on my local Freecycle, hoping for save/large live traps and big fishing nets, we need these if we are going to catch the buns.

Hopefully the owners are willing to work with me, fix the fence, and see about rehoming one gender of rabbits (with my help).



What if we catch the mom rabbit, and she has babies in one of her little ground holes? They will die. Is that a risk that should be taken?




My next big question....what type of information should I print out to bring along with me to the owners house when I go to talk to them? What should I say when they answer the door, meaning...how should I go about talking to them about the bunny issue?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Depends on how old they are. Hopefully someone will help give you more info here.

Maybe print stuff of of hrs? Here? Maybe both so they can see the consistencies?

 

[undergunfire]

I appreciate Crystal's advice :hug2:, but does anyone else have any advice that they can give to me :??

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Amy, I'm so sorry no one has let you know anything further. I'm glad I posted for you. I think it's okay advice, just not awesome advice.

 

[Mikoli]

"What if we catch the mom rabbit, and she has babies in one of her little ground holes? They will die. Is that a risk that should be taken?"

What if you don't catch the mother rabbit, and she is able to have more and more litters consistantly, and three times the amount of littles ones die in the heat, to say nothing of the mother itself? It sounds cruel, but unless you are unable to check if there are any more babies, that is what will happen. You can either save the lives of half of them, and possibly lose the other half, or you can lose them all, and possibly triple the amount before.

My advice to you is to go up to the person's house, ring the doorbell and ask them if they are aware that one of their rabbits is loose. If they say that they are not going to attempt to catch the rabbit, ask if you can catch it and take it home. You might want to make a casual comment about "Oh, I see your sheep isn't looking too good. I hope he gets better soon and is able to go back to his paddock" or something, to make sure that they are aware that their animals are not being properly cared for.

I'm sorry, but I can't think of any better advice than that. Good luck!

 

[undergunfire]

Mikoli wrote:

My advice to you is to go up to the person's house, ring the doorbell and ask them if they are aware that one of their rabbits is loose. If they say that they are not going to attempt to catch the rabbit, ask if you can catch it and take it home. You might want to make a casual comment about "Oh, I see your sheep isn't looking too good. I hope he gets better soon and is able to go back to his paddock" or something, to make sure that they are aware that their animals are not being properly cared for.

Ya know, I may actually do that. I am just afraid they will say "Oh, okay...I'll try to catch them".....and then never do.

At that point, maybe I can offer to help catch them? I'll also see if they are willing to hand them over to me.

We passed by the house again just a little while ago. The baby was out in the same spot this morning, and again just a bit ago when I was coming home from work. I wanted to stop again, but I know I can't catch him without a net.


I might go ask Ryan if we can go to the people's house in a little while, and knock on their door. I need some relief from this....and a net if I am goign to be catching them.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Are there any neighbors that may have fishing nets that you could borrow?

 

[undergunfire]

AngelnSnuffy wrote:

Are there any neighbors that may have fishing nets that you could borrow?

Not that I know of. We aren't close with the neighbors. If worst comes to worst and no one replies to my Freecycle ad, then I'll just go to walmart and pick up a cheap fishing net.

 

[ellissian]

Personally, I would knock on their door and ask them if they know their bunnies are escaping. I would act really nice with them and you would know judging by their reply if they actually give a sh*t or not. I'm guessing by the condition of the sheep etc that they don't though.

This is an awful situation with regards to phoning animal control if you think they will euthanise them. But I don't think you really have an option as you can't save them all or let them stay there and suffer.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[undergunfire]

If I can get work off early tomorrow, then Ryan and I will go over and knock on their door. If not, I will leave a nice note with my phone number and email address, and hope they get back to me.

We drove past the house three times today. It really didn't appear that anyone was home any of the times. They have dogs inside of their house too, that bark through the window.

I asked my friend Garett if he had a big fishing net, and he said he would look around his garage and get back to me tomorrow. I hope he does. I'm going to look around thrift stores as well, before purchasing one.


I really think I should try to talk to the people before trying to catch the bun though. If they would like my help catching them, then great. If they say that they will solve the problem, then I notice that the baby bun is still loose, then I will call animal control...and tell them that if they take the rabbits from the property, then I would like to foster one, so atleast one has a chance at a real life.



It's going to take a few days here, but hopefully this issue can be solved .

 

[iluvmybuns]

Go you! Good luck with them, here is tohoping they aren't big jerks.

 

[undergunfire]

iluvmybuns wrote:

Go you! Good luck with them, here is tohoping they aren't big jerks.

Thank you! I am so happy that I also have Ryan's support in this :biggrin2:!

 

[seniorcats]

Good luck! It may be best to try and be as non-confrontational as possible. Offering your help is a great way to start.

WalMart has soft cord (not fishing line) nets for something like $9 or $12 if I remember correctly.

Some animal rescue groups may have Hav-a-heart traps you can rent for a small fee.

 

[undergunfire]

seniorcats wrote:

Good luck! It may be best to try and be as non-confrontational as possible. Offering your help is a great way to start.

WalMart has soft cord (not fishing line) nets for something like $9 or $12 if I remember correctly.

Some animal rescue groups may have Hav-a-heart traps you can rent for a small fee.

Oh, great! Maybe I will just go to Walmart tomorrow and pick one up then. I'll bring along my carrier and an already written-out note to put on the people's door, if they are not home.

If they aren't home tomorrow, then we will just try to catch the bunnies anyway.

 

[Haley]

Oh wow, just seeing this, What a mess! Bless you for trying to help.

When I caught Tumnus I used minnow nets, they work the best because they have long handles and big nets with small holes.

And as Ann mentioned sometimes Animal Control or rescues will have live (humane) traps you can use.

I would start with the owners first. Be friendly and nice and tell them whats going on. If they wont help, do what you can on your own and try calling around to The Humane Society and rescues for help.

Poor bunnies. People really tick me off.