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Rescues - Easter o Christmas?

Rescues - Easter or Christmas?

  • Christmas

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Easter

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Christmas & Easter

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Makes no difference

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
D

Denny

Mama Doe
I am running this poll to see which holiday period is the worst although it will probably be even because, I was wondering, with so many rescues stating Christmas and Easter as some of their worst times, whether, discussions with petstores regarding impulse buys at these times would persuade pet sellers not to sell at these times?

If the petshops selling the animals really do put the animals welfare first then surely they would agree to this :D

Although I still agree that petshops should not sell animals full stop, in the mean time, by not selling animals at certain periods of the year may slow things down a little and with more education being readily available, it just might deter people from buying on impullse.

What does everyone think?
 
I've spoken to half a dozen or so rescues in the last couple of weeks that say they are full and have waiting lists. Many rescues perminately work at full capasity with a couple of hutches for emergencies and a waiting list, so as soon as one bunny goes out another from the waiting list goes in!

Seasons as well as holidays play a part I think. Less people want a bunny in winter time cos the weather is horrible.

Tam
 
Devon is very bad at the moment, the rescues there are busy. Scotland seems to have less rescues to start with so they are also quite busy. Surrey/London area is also quite busy too at the moment, as far as I know both Furrey friends and Bobtails are full.

Its difficult to tell really, I don't know whether areas that are quieter just seem so because I haven't heard of problems and/or there are less rescues to report problems.

Tam
 
I agree, South of the country in exceptional bad, had a sad message from Siobhan from ratty haven :( :( about how bad it is down that part of the country.
 
Although we take in the elderly and disabled all year round we do find it particularly bad over the winter period - that is when we see a larger number of rabbits coming to us who need help. Rescues always get full in the winter as people just don't want to be bothered going into the garden and feeding the rabbit :evil: All the excuses come in then, I'm moving, I am emigrating, I've got asthma ........... :?
Because the rescues get full so quickly some then contact us to see if we can take any of the disabled or elderly buns - we wish so much that we could take them all but we can't :cry: If I had a bigger house you could bet your life we would take far more - as it is by the end of this month we will have 29 buns - we have been up to 36 but it was so hard to cope with. The difference with us is that the buns stay here forever - they are also more prone to illness etc with them being old or disabled.
It's a sad state of affairs - why people can't just stop buying rabbits for their kids is beyond me :roll: And as for keeping them in hutches at the bottom of the garden - well :evil: Poor wee things are little lives, not flipping ornaments that you put away for the winter :shock:
 
Bertie and I are planning on relieving Bobtails of a resident fairly soon... :)[/quote]

Ooooh, which one :?:
 
Jaypot said:
Although we take in the elderly and disabled all year round we do find it particularly bad over the winter period - that is when we see a larger number of rabbits coming to us who need help. Rescues always get full in the winter as people just don't want to be bothered going into the garden and feeding the rabbit :evil: All the excuses come in then, I'm moving, I am emigrating, I've got asthma ........... :?
Click to expand...

I have to agree with this. The winter is so much worst than any other time of year. I have been full to bursting for weeks now and it wont get any better for a long time yet. I have around 30 rabbits and 6 guinea pigs on my waiting list at the moment :cry:

I remember at one point a few months back I had 18 empty hutches which was fantastic but I knew it wouldnt last long.

Cheryl
 
I completely agree with what has been said by Cheryl and Jay...there are lots of bunnies seeking homes all year round, but this time of year is definately the worst.
I am turning away many rabbits a week at the moment, as we are already full. The trouble is most of the other Rescues/ sanctuaries are full too :cry: Poor bunnies, what a rotten Christmas some will be spending, despite all our great efforts to help.
 
Oh Folks - this makes me soooooo sad and mad to read this - what is wrong with folks that they can just abandon animal responsibility.

Zac has just coming bounding into the room while I'm typing this out and I look at him and think - matey you could have been another statistic!

I really admire you folks it must be sooooo hard to have to say no when your constantly bombarded with appeals to take in bunnies and on a night like tonight when its pooring with rain you wonder how many are left in Gardens just unattended as folks carn't be bothered to go out a feed the little bunsters.

The sooner there is tighter regulation the better but I think there is a long way to go.
 
From what people have posted, would it be right to conclude that, the spring/summer sales of bunnies contribute to the winter problem of rescues being full with long waiting lists :?:
 
Probably. More people want rabbits in summer so rescues have better luck with rehoming. There are also more bunnies brought tho. Those bunnies hit the 6 month hormonal phase at the same time the winter bad weather starts and adoptions decrease.

Tam
 
:wave: Hi Just found your poll, I think this is a very intresting subject. Although over Christmas we were full to bursting having over 60 rabbits in. :rabbit2: We close the centre for rehoming just before Christmas and re-open in the new year. Unfortunatley between the 26th-30th december we had another 12 rabbits dumped on different occasions by our gates. :evil: This pushed us to bursting using every possiable cage, our isolation, our operating pens and even pens set aside for wildlife, filled with a bunny. After lots of advertising we are now down to just over 50 rabbits. :bunny: :D

We have found in the past few year Easter has been no better for us, as rabbit owners breed, to have cute bunnies ready for Easter and then as the market get flooded with baby bunnies, they cant find them homes and we suddenly get all the young bunnies that wasn't sold for Easter. Plus you get the unwanted presents come in, as its amazing how many people become allergic to rabbits over the Easter period and so many get signed over to us. :roll:

As a small branch we deal mainly in rabbits and also have a few guinea pigs, rodants and other small creatures and reptiles that come through the door. But the amount of rabbits that came into the centre last year has doubled than previous years and we are finding it very hard to keep up with the waiting list of rabbits coming in. Although we are extremly busy in the winter it doesn't seem to get that much quieter althrough the year. :|
 
that was very interesting reading Amanda :)

does the rspca's do statistic's as to where the bun originally came from :?: eg: named petshop, newspapers etc

I would love to see a map of the uk of all the rescues pinpoint and all the larger petshop chains listed that would maybe show which areas are worse than others and it would be interesting to see if the areas that are unindated with unwanted buns are the areas that have a more petshops than others :)

I have had a look at the BIG petshop chains map and noticed that some of the areas have more of their shops than actually listed on their website map :wink:
 
The problem we notice is owners who do not do their reserch before mating their rabbits. They think they can just walk into a pet shop with a litter of bunnies and they will buy them. It when the pet shops wont except them the problems start. Pet owners must reliase most big pet shops breed their own rabbits or come from a main breeding supplier to provide the pet shops with rabbits all year round, and a lot of these shops wont take in other rabbits. Pet owners then try to sell them privately with adverts and when this doesn't work and the bunnies start to get that little bit older and grow then many people will sign them over to us for re-homing. :(

Our aim this year at our branch is to educate rabbit owners not to breed for no reason. Yes to watch a rabbit bring up a litter and have young baby rabbits is cute, but unless they are sure they can home all of them its very unfair. We are try and discourage the need for breeding rabbit for the purpose of trying to make money over Easter. It rarely works and it means it put more pressure on the rescue centres. There are too many rabbits in rescue centre and most are full to bursting. We are lucky we have had a good month of rehoming and can now transfer many rabbits from Rspca Brighton Branch, to our branch to find them new homes.

Education needs to be the answer. :wink:
 
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