Hi Everyone,
First of all I just want to say, I didn't even know about these forums! Sorry to find it under such circumstances. Seems like there are probably a lot of great folks here!
Just want you all to know, I totally understand why you would want to think that none of this with Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue actually happened! I would love to be able to think that too. To just disbelieve all of this and walk away. What I can't seem to wrap my head around is how anyone would suspect that this whole thing was just orchestrated over jealousy or whatever other reason. How can anyone possibly believe that when all of these ex volunteers from Florida, people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, have come forward. Can you really believe we ALL created this imaginary story and imaginary pitures because what? We are ALL jealous? All of these people, who have never met each otherin person?
Problem is, I was there and I feel obligated to tell the story of the rabbits that I whitnessed suffering at the hands ofor should I say lack of hands of this individual. And I will understand if you choose not to believe me, but it is sadly, very true.
This individual chooses not to remember all of those rabbits, telling us she never had that many, and changing the number of how many she had every time she defends herself. But I will tell their story, because they deserve to be remembered. I only wish they could be remembered for who they were before going into that hell hole of a rescue. Because at one time, they could have been someone's beloved pet, at one time they binkied and played and had names that mattered to someone. In the care of this person, all they were was a story to tell for attention, and a dollar sign.
What I whitnessed was much of what her ex volunteers whitnessed, and the other rescue above who took in 15 of these rabbits. What we saw was also different from what others saw.
We went into thethis personshome in 2003 after this individualwas already gone and living in Florida. To shorten the story, we saw three or four rooms in the home, and a shed in the yard(in the middle of summer) FULL of rabbits. Somewhere around the count of 350 rabbits, either Hal or I lost count, and were too tired to recount them all over again.
Rabbits in tiny stacked cages. Rabbits who had not gotten out of those tiny cages in over a year according to someone close to this individuals mother. These poor rabbits were so bored, they had chewed their litter boxes until they were nothing but slabs in the bottome of the wire bottomed cage. Any plastic food dishes were the same. They had no interest in us when we came, it was like they had already lost hope in humans. They just sat in the same spot, obviously beyond the point of distress.
When we had gotten there the first time, the cages hadn't been cleaned in around two months. The one room in the home was called the "sick room" and contained the sickest rabbits. Bunnies with head tilt, bunnies sneazing blood, sneazing and infected goopy eyes. Urine splattered everywhere, scraggly looking pet cats, fleas so bad in the middle of summer we had to wear long clothes and Judy would keep a bottle of flea spray by the steps for everyone to spray themselves with when they walked in the door.
Hal(another small animal rescue) and our rescue went in and cleaned cages, medicated bunnies and slowly transported as many rabbits as we could out of there.While there, even though we truely did feel sorry for this person close to the head of this rescue, we would have loved to take pictures of the mess, butwas instructed not to let us leave her sight, and told us from the get go she would not allow cameras in the house. She never left us, she stood over us the whole time we were there.
In the end, all we wanted was to "free" as many rabbits as we could from what we considered prison for innocent rabbits. That was our main conern. In the end we rescued, transported to other rescues, and rehomed all but around 20 of those the rabbits who were stuck there for at least a year, some for two years or who knows? Maybe longer.
We thought that was going to be the end, because surely anyone who made animals suffer like that would be feeling too guilty to do it again? Wrong! Most people with these kinds of mental instabilities convince themselves that they are doing nothing wrong, and that they are in fact the heros. They can lie and believe their own lies mentally beause they don't have the capacity to face the truth.
I was very dismayed to find out that she was doing this again in Florida, and even more shocked to find out she was treating them even worse than she did in New Jersey. I saw the pitures the volunteers took and her pitures, it is obvious that it is the same building and some of the same rabbits that Christine wants us all to believe is what happens every day.
What this person is doing is not "rescue", taking these rabbits out of one bad situation and putting them into another.
She only now has this "shelter" and all of these new volunteers because she is manipulative,takes convincing pictures, and has convinced others, and maybe some of you here, to fund this new "shelter" and everything she has to make it look shiney and new. The money and the rabbits are like was said by someone else, like a drug to her. And right now she is as high as she can get. Problem with that is that we all know, once you reach the very top, there is only one way to go.
Once her new volunteers lose interest, or catch on to her, the care of the rabbits will go to the wayside. The cages won't get cleaned as much, and they vet will not be called when needed. Just like what just happened in Florida. Besides that, she will fill out every possible space she has with rabbits to try to get that high back. She will overwhelm herself because in her own mind, she is a hero and no one else can save these rabbits.
I have said what I needed to say. I am not trying to convince anyone of anything. I know what I saw,just as the others here know what they saw, and only hope that some people can use their better judgement in all of this.
Our rescue has no interest in opening a shelter, we do not feel that Little Miracles or this person is reputable, so no we do not have any competitive or jealousy issues at all. It's just really hard to feel that the bunnies who have suffered have gotten any closure when everyone, including the one person who was supposed to be there for them, won't even acknowledge them or what she has done to them.
Great if she really does clean it up and keep it that way. However,the rabbits who myself and all of the others who have their own horror stories to tell, well they deserve to be heard, no matter howthis individualmakes it look. She still abused and neglected hundreds of animals and they need to be heard.