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is there a reason why rescues don't leaflet drop to find forever homes ?

I know not all areas would be ideal to rehome a bunny (tower blocks, no gardens etc)

But are there any problems with leaflet dropping desirable areas and organising an open day where potential owners could be vetted, and shown the ins and outs of rabbit care, especially education regarding suitable accomodation

If it wasn't for me telling people about rabbit rescues at work, most people would just go to P@H
 
I know not all areas would be ideal to rehome a bunny (tower blocks, no gardens etc)

But are there any problems with leaflet dropping desirable areas and organising an open day where potential owners could be vetted, and shown the ins and outs of rabbit care, especially education regarding suitable accomodation

If it wasn't for me telling people about rabbit rescues at work, most people would just go to P@H

Im assuming it would be fairly expensive to do all those leaflet drops but its a good idea in theory. I think a lot of bunny rescues already do open days for the public. I think it also depends on having the time and people power to do such things. Also how would you distinguish a desirable area from non desirable area?
 
its cheaper to put up posters it can also have the opposite affect too.. ie people know you are a rescue adn you are there and dump more rabits on you .... but i think in theory its good to raise awareness leaflets are very expensive and time consuming!
 
I only advertise my buns on my website or on here:D. I certainly don't advertise in my local papers as since I started helping the RSPCA out with some of their rabbits I am finding I am turning more people away than actually rehome to. I have been rescuing now for 7yrs and have rehomed hundreds to excellent forever homes through my website and this forum and that is fine by me:D. I also get recommended by people who have either had rabbits of me or my vets always recommend me so again I am hapy with that:D
 
Also how would you distinguish a desirable area from non desirable area?

hope it doesn't sound snobbish, but non desirable areas...inner cities where there is loads of unemployment, and families are having trouble feeding their own kids let alone pets. Yes I'm sure there are probably families that would love their pets, but if money is short, who goes without ?
 
Some good points here...

If people want to get rid of their pets and don't know about rescues, what do they do ?

I've lived in my current area for about 6 years, and I've never heard about any rescue open days, and I know there are a couple of rescues close by. I know that ARC in middlesex have had them

Maybe leaflet dropping is not a good economical idea, but articles in the local paper would seem the best way to stir up interest, to stop the P@H type spur of the moment pet buying; enlisting new helpers for the rescue; potential new homes for the current rescues

Any rescues out there done this before, and enlisted the aid of the local paper ?
 
we advertise in local papers ...but its usualy the cats and dogs who get individual mentions ...

also have our own website ...plus but buns on here .

we put up posters too ,....mainly in vets
 
hope it doesn't sound snobbish, but non desirable areas...inner cities where there is loads of unemployment, and families are having trouble feeding their own kids let alone pets. Yes I'm sure there are probably families that would love their pets, but if money is short, who goes without ?


I understand what you are saying here but i live in an inner city and there are many poor families around me. However. Both my hubby and i work for what we have and i know we take excellent care of our animals and if anyone goes without anything it is always us and never our son or animals. I do totally get what you mean though as a lot of struggling families etc can not take care of themselves sometimes let alone any animals. But just trying to show that even in some not so nice areas there are people willing to give their animals as good life as in other areas :)
 
I understand what you are saying here but i live in an inner city and there are many poor families around me. However. Both my hubby and i work for what we have and i know we take excellent care of our animals and if anyone goes without anything it is always us and never our son or animals. I do totally get what you mean though as a lot of struggling families etc can not take care of themselves sometimes let alone any animals. But just trying to show that even in some not so nice areas there are people willing to give their animals as good life as in other areas :)
And there was the case of a severely maltreated bunny (walrus like teeth, undernourished amongst other things) who's owner was a company director and had a brand new car every couple of years yet didn't want to pay Vets bills :evil::( .

I don't think leaflet drops are a good idea... caring people will eventually find out about rescues and random drops advertise you to possibly the wrong sort of person. (I speak from experience after getting horrid phone calls requesting certain types of massage after I leaflet dropped when I was doing reflexology :oops:)
 
I no when i've mentioned lately to people about getting a bun for floppy and they say where you going to get it from and i've said a rescue, they've said oh i didn't realise there were rescues for rabbits :roll:
 
I understand what you are saying here but i live in an inner city and there are many poor families around me. However. Both my hubby and i work for what we have and i know we take excellent care of our animals and if anyone goes without anything it is always us and never our son or animals. I do totally get what you mean though as a lot of struggling families etc can not take care of themselves sometimes let alone any animals. But just trying to show that even in some not so nice areas there are people willing to give their animals as good life as in other areas :)

I fully understand, I'm not saying people from non-desirable areas shouldn't be allowed to have pets, but I'm looking at the odds here, the odds are a home check would find more suitable homes in certain areas than others, why waste time and money pursuing areas which have only a few nuggets as opposed to areas that will throw up many good opportunities

at the end of the day the point is to find good homes for our furry friends, not potentially place them somewhere where they would be neglected (happens in well off families too); used for breeding; returned later due to costs; etc

lets not let this thread degenerate into a discussion about "this-area-is-better-than-that"

It would be wonderful to be able to organise a successful open day where lots of our furry friends find their forever homes (after a home check), and the rescue ends up empty

I think the rescues have a great potential to tap into modern marketing techniques to be able to drum up genuine interest in the good work they do
 
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I don't think leaflet drops are a good idea... caring people will eventually find out about rescues and random drops advertise you to possibly the wrong sort of person. (I speak from experience after getting horrid phone calls requesting certain types of massage after I leaflet dropped when I was doing reflexology :oops:)

I don't think that's always the case though, having worked in petshops and been the resident 'animal lady' in my office job I've had the "Small animal rescues exist? I thought it was just cats and dogs" thing loads of times.

I know it's sort of jumping into an unknown area, rehoming to total strangers, but if you stick in the same area too long then there'll only be so many homes you can home to - look at how many people on RU are already at their maximum capicity. You may find some reals jems of an owner out there. For example, I made friends with someone who managed one of the petshops I used to work at, turned out she owned rats like me - and her rats were absolutely spoilt, huge cage, good diet, used the same vets as me etc so couldn't fault her, but she has no internet at home so isn't on any forums. Does that make her less of an owner? She also didn't know of any local rescues to adopt from - there are none immediately near us but a few who advertise online that are close enough to travel to.
Yes, you may get more animals dumped on you but you may home more animals too, and those animals likely would've been dumped elsewhere anyway.

As for cost, this could possible be reduced (or maybe even done for free) by speaking to a local printing company and seeing if they can do some flyers in exchange for having an advertisement for their company somewhere on the flyer? Then it's free advertising for them and they're seen to be helping out a good cause ;) Or even local members printing out small batches, as many as they can afford to spare ink for - this may help widen the area you can hand them out in too if the members are happy to drop them around. Easier for 5 people to hand out 50 flyers than one person!
You could even try appealing to existing owners by having basic care info on there? Maybe rabbit-savvy vet numbers (they may contribute to costs for some cheap advertising?), handy tips like how to stop water bottles freezing, prevent flystrike, why buns should be neutered or spayed etc and advertise your bonding services to those with lone buns (a chance to educate them face-to-face there too)
 
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