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Whats the Difference.....

Phill

Wise Old Thumper
...... Between a sanctuary and a rabbit nutter? To avoid confusion, anyone who keeps more than 10 rabbits
 
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'rabbit nutter' makes me think of those people who keep way more pets than they can handle. More like animal collectors than animal lovers. But it would probably mean different things to different people.
 
I thought a sanctuary was a place that took in unwanted animals.

And a rabbit nutter someone who is obssessed...i guess?

Why? :D

ETA - i have 19! and im not a sanctuary or a nutter (i dont think) :shock: :lol:
 
IMO a sanctuary takes in any rabbits (spaces permitting) who meet it's criteria.

A rabbit nutter chooses which rabbits they want to take in...hence I am a rabbit nutter even though I have lots of 'hard to home' rabbits :D
 
I thought a sanctuary was a place that took in unwanted animals.

And a rabbit nutter someone who is obssessed...i guess?

Why? :D

ETA - i have 19! and im not a sanctuary or a nutter (i dont think) :shock: :lol:

I'm just interested in peopls opinions, maybe i have'nt worded my question quite right.

You have people like me who keep rabbits, i currently have 17 soon to be more, i very rarely offer a home to the rabbit i really want, i will offer a home to the aggresive and unwanted, as i know i can give them a home where they will be allowed to be rabbits and will not be pushed aside for not being friendly, it helps that i like the aggresive ones lol, you have people who have lots and lots of rabbits of all sorts of kinds again because they can, then you have sanctuaries, these groups take in the unwanted, elderly, disabled, aggressive etc etc and care for them, Whats the difference? Because i take in aggressice rabs that otherwise would take a long time to find a home most people think im nuts, gawd sometimes i do, i do it because i can, i can pay the vets bills, feed and house them, and make sure they are never re-homed again. I don't want to be a sanctuary, i did consider rescueing, but have decided not to as i could never re-home any of the rabs i got in. Did sanctuarys become sanctuarys for any particular reason other than the ability to help out an unwanted bun?
 
We realised that every rabbit we took in for many years had some problem or other so took the step 18 months ago to call ourselves a sanctuary. We set a certain criteria which we cannot deviate from for bunnies coming in, built a website and made ourselves publically known.

We have set up rabbit sponsorship and a few other fundraising ideas which enable us to help more bunnies. We also offer advice on rabbit care etc and often have lots of emails to deal with because of this. There seems to be a lot more of my time now taken up with "paperwork", sponsorship takes a lot of my time, keeping the website upto date is time consuming and we keep seperate finances.

We very rarely pick bunnies that come here, more often we are contacted and asked to take them in. If we have the space ( or sometimes dont have the space :lol: ) and the time to deal with their specific need then we take them.

I do feel now that we are more open to public scrutiny, if that is the right word :? That we have to be seen to be doing the right thing and giving the right impression all the time ( which hopefully we would anyway ) as the public now look to us as an example. I hope that makes sense :lol: We are also hoping to have some stands at fetes etc to help spread the word about rabbit welfare as well as raise our own profile.

Hopefully by giving advice etc we are giving something back as well as taking ie rabbit sponsorship and other donations :)

Just to add when we became a sanctuary we had 20 rabbits, we now have 32 and at the most had 34, so becoming a sanctuary has also completely taken over our lives, no holidays for us now :lol:
 
I guess a sanctuary will have criteria (e.g. elderly/disabled/hard to home) and will offer permanent...errr...sanctuary to the residents. They are unlikely to take rabbits that don't meet their criteria unless there are extenuating circumstances or they just fancy a healthy pet for a change! A sanctuary may well be a more 'formal' setup e.g. they may accept donations, have formal policies etc.

A 'rabbit nutter' I guess is someone who just has lots of pets. I doubt many of us have the animals we set out to get so I don't think the fact that you choose to take on something different to your intention really means anything. I was on the lookout for a giant when I ended up with Dudley :) Some people will be more inclined to take hard to homes because they know they can cope with them. It's more worrying when people - whether sanctuaries or not - take on more than they can cope with/afford/are able to house appropriately, yet think they're helping because they are taking on unwanted animals.

To a large extent I think it's semantics, as in many cases it doesn't make a jot of difference what they're called. You can call me Maureen if you like, it doesn't make any difference to who I am or what I do :)
 
Thank you, so your a sort of a resceu that doesn't re-home and is limited to what you can take in not by number wholey but by your criteria?
 
Thank you, so your a sort of a resceu that doesn't re-home and is limited to what you can take in not by number wholey but by your criteria?

No we never rehome any of our bunnies :) I think you do have to limit your numbers to a certain extent, a lot of special need bunnies need a lot of hands on care and if you have so many that you can't provide this then you are going to get in a muddle and the bunnies will suffer.
Having a criteria to stick to can also cause difficulties as we have found when trying to find partners to bunnies that have lost their companion, we can't just take any bunny because our remaining bunny is depressed. For example Summer has been on her own 6 months because we cannot find her a suitable partner. We have taken in a number of buns that we thought might go with her but haven't turned out to be suitable due to health problems etc.

We are also finding that there is a high emotional price to pay that "normal" pet owners might not be willing to pay. Many of the bunnies that come to us have terminal conditions and have only been with us for a couple of weeks or months. Having to constantly make decisions about having bunnies PTS is completely overwhelming. Then of course there are the bunnies that die so suddenly and break your heart, this has happened to us twice this year already :(

Phil have a look at our website, it outlines our criteria and you can see the type of bunnies we take in. Also on the rainbow bridge page you can see what short times our bunnies are with us :(

www.rainbowrabbits.co.uk
 
For those who take in "challanged" rabbits I think a sanctuary is what you call yourselves (and what those who appreciate your work call you).

Rabbit nutter is what other (non rabbit people) call you!!!

As Santa said it's just semantics!
 
I'm just interested in peopls opinions, maybe i have'nt worded my question quite right.

You have people like me who keep rabbits, i currently have 17 soon to be more, i very rarely offer a home to the rabbit i really want, i will offer a home to the aggresive and unwanted, as i know i can give them a home where they will be allowed to be rabbits and will not be pushed aside for not being friendly, it helps that i like the aggresive ones lol, you have people who have lots and lots of rabbits of all sorts of kinds again because they can, then you have sanctuaries, these groups take in the unwanted, elderly, disabled, aggressive etc etc and care for them, Whats the difference? Because i take in aggressice rabs that otherwise would take a long time to find a home most people think im nuts, gawd sometimes i do, i do it because i can, i can pay the vets bills, feed and house them, and make sure they are never re-homed again. I don't want to be a sanctuary, i did consider rescueing, but have decided not to as i could never re-home any of the rabs i got in. Did sanctuarys become sanctuarys for any particular reason other than the ability to help out an unwanted bun?

Phill, luv, you are neither a sanctuary or a rabbit nutter. You are what's known as a massochist. :lol:
 
Phill, luv, you are neither a sanctuary or a rabbit nutter. You are what's known as a massochist. :lol:


thank you :lol: :lol: No i don't know why but i have never fully understood sanctuary's this is ignorance on my part, rescues yes i understand, until Hugos there posted i never really understood them, yes i know i an totally stupid!
 
Just out of interest Phill, with the aggressive buns do you ever stop trying to engage with them and just accept that they don't like people or do you keep at it. I ask because I am having a tricky bun here at the moment who unlike all the other so called aggressive buns we have had in just seems to want to be left alone.
 
Just out of interest Phill, with the aggressive buns do you ever stop trying to engage with them and just accept that they don't like people or do you keep at it. I ask because I am having a tricky bun here at the moment who unlike all the other so called aggressive buns we have had in just seems to want to be left alone.

I keep at it at all times, most of them improve slightly, but with the truely aggressive they will never get better and you can only hope to understand them so you can leap out of harms way! One i have here Max, we think he has brain damage, he was rescued by Furryfriends in surrey, he was found in a field with an abcess on his belly and still with balls, Emma had him done and cleared his abcess and tried to work with him but even with her best efforts he would still take chunks from her. i have had him for 3 years now, and he can be very affectionate, but his eyes will suddenly change and he will go for you teeth and all, i have just learnt to read Max and remove myself when he is going to go for me. Others are all show, Sooty growls, nips and boxes but if you persist he stops quite quickly.
 
Over the past year we have started to call ourselves a sanctuary, but unofficially. It has taken this year to decide in what direction we wanted to go. We tried fostering and found it didn't work for us, so started to take in animals who were unlikely to be rehomeable or were going to be PTS. This often means they are elderly or ill, and like Hugo's there says, carries a huge emotional and finantial burden. We take in any kind of animal, not just rabbits, but the theory is the same, if the animal comes here it stays here, because it is not going to be kept well elsewhere. For example we have a one year old pig, who was found running around a road at 2 weeks old, had we put her anywhere else she would have been used for breeding stock and then culled or culled when she reached weight. Having been hand reared by us and being a 'pet' it seemed unfair to do that. I suppose you could argue why not save any pig, but she came to us and unfortunately you can't save them all.
 
IMO a sanctuary takes in any rabbits (spaces permitting) who meet it's criteria.

A rabbit nutter chooses which rabbits they want to take in...hence I am a rabbit nutter even though I have lots of 'hard to home' rabbits :D

I agree, and the person who is a nutter doesn't put the rabbits first, they think about themselves and what they would like. Even if it means that the rabbits are kept in unsuitable accommodation with no real attempt to move them on to good new homes.

It's a subtle difference but easy to detect I think when you meet the rescuers versus collectors.
 
I agree, and the person who is a nutter doesn't put the rabbits first, they think about themselves and what they would like. Even if it means that the rabbits are kept in unsuitable accommodation with no real attempt to move them on to good new homes.

It's a subtle difference but easy to detect I think when you meet the rescuers versus collectors.

I don't think you have to be a collector to be a rabbit nutter...I didn't mean it in a sinister way :oops:

I for one don't have the resources or DIY equipment atm for brilliant accomodation for mine, but I can perhaps offer them more in other ways.
 
I don't think you have to be a collector to be a rabbit nutter...I didn't mean it in a sinister way :oops:

I for one don't have the resources or DIY equipment atm for brilliant accomodation for mine, but I can perhaps offer them more in other ways.

Sorry! Didn't read your post correctly - am not referring to you!! You know what I mean. How many 'nutters' have been featured on tv documentaries where the animals are shoved in anywhere at all just so that the owner can keep them.

No offense intended!:oops:
 
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