# UVic Rabbit Rescue a Texas-Sized Undertaking



## Pipp (Sep 1, 2010)

[align=center]*TRACS FOR TEXAS-BOUND BUNNIES*[/align] 
*UVic Rabbit Rescue a Texas-Sized Undertaking*

*(Victoria/Vancouver/Richmond, BC *_â September 1, 2010_*)* - The first run of a planned mass exodus of up to 1000 rabbits from the University of Victoria campus to the Wild Rose Rescue Ranch in eastern Texas gets underway Thursday and the biggest threat remaining to the feral bunnies may well be strangulation by government red tape. 

Campus officials are expected to hand over the first run of around 40 rabbits to the ad hoc rescue group TRACS For Texas Bound Bunnies, under the watchful and restrictive eyes of the Ministry of the Environment. 

The Ministry has classified the former pets and their offspring as wildlife making it illegal for groups and individuals to rescue any rabbits without a permit and an approved facility to house them, a problem that does not encumber feral cats, horses or other animals in a similar situation. (Ironically people can trap and kill rabbits without a permit, but you need a permit to catch, sterilize and re-home them).

The logistics are a nightmare for the rescue group and the assisting vets who must spay and neuter large numbers of rabbits in a very short time frame as mandated by the Ministry. The only facilities included on the permit and allowed to house the rabbits are the veterinary practices, an impossible feat for the small clinics. Only three vets are authorized on the Texas permit and just two of them are available to help immediately -- Dr. Joseph Martinez of Little Paws Animal Clinic in Richmond, who is handling the majority of the current group of rabbits, and Dr. Nick Shaw, an early champion of the rabbits, who heads up several clinics in Victoria. 

The campus was originally expected to hand over close to 100 rabbits at once but they recently relaxed the schedule and are now splitting the initial hand-off into two runs. The first allotment of 40 rabbits scheduled for Thursday is to be followed by a larger shipment of close to 60 just after Labour Day. 

But hundreds more are scheduled to be trapped and turned over in October and November and organizers fear the feat may not be doable, at least not without more money, more volunteers, more vets and less government. 

If the rabbits canât be housed, processed and transported to Texas, they must be returned to the UVic campus where they are considered pests. An injunction filed by activist Roslyn Cassells on the eve of an end of July âcullâ kept the rabbits alive, but the injunction was thrown out by Justice Cullen on August 30 and now the future of any rabbits unable to be rescued as scheduled remains unclear and precarious. 
The campusâs feral rabbit management plan calls for reducing the number of rabbits on campus from an estimated 1400 to just two hundred. Local BC sanctuaries are expected to house up to 400 while Texas is expecting the rest. 

The complicated logistics is also taking a giant bite out of the groupâs fragile funding. Several rabbit groups are sharing a generous and necessary spay and neuter fund courtesy of the Fur-Bearer Defenders (Association for the _Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals),_ but almost all of the financial support from the public went to a local rescue group before the Texas sanctuary had stepped up to the plate. As a result, a comparatively small number of local sanctuary rabbits are now adequately funded but the 1000 or so earmarked for Texas have next to no funding at all. 

The rabbits are destined for the Wild Rose Rescue Ranch, a 50 acre faith-based wildlife rehabilitation centre in eastern Texas. The owners have offered to drive to BC to pick up the first 100 rabbits in their air conditioned three-stall horse trailer, but the group is still without a proper holding area where the rabbits can recover from surgery and wait for transport to Texas as their numbers are amassed. 

Rescuers are being forced to look for a recovery area south of the border in Washington State thanks to the Ministryâs red tape. 

The group has been looking to the community for help but the rabbits are falling between the cracks of the pet rescue and wildlife groups â pet rescues think the rabbits are wildlife and wildlife groups consider them pets. 

Fundraising is being channeled though TRACS (The Responsible Animal Care Society), the group responsible for a large rabbit rescue in Kelowna among other projects. 

*
TRACS For Texas-Bound Bunnies: 

*Donation Page - http://www.tracs-bc.ca/uvicbun.html


*For further information: *
Laura Leah Shaw â TRACS For Texas-Bound Bunnies (Vancouver) - [email protected]

Dr. Joseph Martinez/ Little Paws Animal Clinic â (Richmond, BC) â 604-241-7387 - [email protected]

TRACS â (Westbank, BC) - [email protected] 


Additional Links:

http://www.rabbitadvocacy.com/


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## Sweetie (Sep 2, 2010)

I don't understand something: does this mean that people cannot house these rabbits in Washington if they don't have a permit?

The only big facility here in Kitsap County that may house rabbits is the Kitsap Humane Society. Not sure if there is a rabbit rescue here in Kitsap County or not. I know you said there is a rescue in Gig Harbor, but there could be others. I will check it out after 2:30pm today. I start my volunteer job today at Bremerton High School.

Sas: please email me and explain this as I don't understand what is going on with the rabbits up there, thank you!


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## TreasuredFriend (Sep 2, 2010)

Appreciate the link info & donation page, Pipp. Every little bit will help. 

Somebuns here wish many buns at UVic make it to safe haven.


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## PixieStixxxx (Sep 2, 2010)

Evie and Sidney are praying that their friends make it!


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