Easter Bunnies and Animal Foster Carers

Happy Easter Saturday.

Just a quick hop around the blog today.

Here are some photographs I took of wild rabbits at play, or probably at bunny work, looking for food and doing other important bunny things.

Marazion Marsh Nature Reserve  April 2010

I was quite startled last week to hear a warning asking people not to buy rabbits as Easter Presents. We are all familiar with the "A dog is for life not just for Christmas" campaign, but I don't think I had really thought about the same problem being true for rabbits in spring. I'm not going to launch into a rant here, as the article linked to covers all the details of numbers of rabbits being "dumped" this year and gives some information about why people might feel they have no option!!! ??? I will let my numerous exclamation marks and question marks demonstrate my thoughts about this.

And now for a short bunny intermission:

 

Storm Coming - August 2010

I do understand that sometimes pet owners can find their circumstances have changed and they can nolonger look after their animals. Only a few days ago I happened to overhear a woman on the telephone about her housing benefit having been stopped, she was also mentioning her sick dog who she couldn't get treated by the RSPA due to some issue with her address or benefits or something. During my work I often came across families being evicted from their homes, and witnessed colleagues doing everything they could to find places for the animals from these families.

Earlier this month the news featured the RSPCA's PetRetreat  which is a fostering service for animals belonging to families going into refuge after fleeing Domestic Abuse. The news feature focused on the shortage of foster carers for animals, there are currently only 80 carers in England and Wales, and appealed for more people to volunteer to help. There is also a donation button on the appeal page if you feel like hopping over there this Easter weekend.