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Rabbits stay at the Humane Society for an average of six weeks before being adopted, compared to three to four weeks for cats and dogs, Alamed said. ‘It’s not ideal’Īt the Humane Society, rabbits are more difficult to adopt out because they require “a lot more work to care for than a dog or a cat” and can live at least eight to 10 years - a lot longer than people might expect, Alamed said. “When you take in a (stray) rabbit, you don’t know if you’re taking in one or if you’re about to have 13,” Erdogan said. It cost Safe Haven Critter Rescue $500 to neuter and perform blood work on Mochi, not including the cost of food, toys and other items, according to Erdogan.Īnd despite the help of Green Mountain Animal Defenders and Shelburne Veterinary Hospital, Erdogan says the cost of rescuing rabbits is significant even without injuries, with spaying and neutering costing $250 per rabbit.ĭue to the costs, it’s likely that many of the stray rabbits across Burlington and Vermont haven’t had the procedure, she said. He recovered while staying in Erdogan’s home. Erdogan said that the veterinarian believed that he ate something toxic while he was outside.
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Mochi, for example, was found to be drinking and urinating excessively - drinking more than four cups a day despite weighing less than three pounds. Stray rabbits can also be run over by cars - which Erdogan said has happened at least once, in mid-April of this year. Stray domesticated rabbits don’t have the same kind of survival instincts as their wild peers, and are unable to camouflage, which allows predators such as small foxes or birds to eat them, Erdogan said. Meanwhile, the Humane Society is currently housing 10 rabbits in its foster network - which is the maximum number of rabbits that the organization allows - and seven rabbits at the shelter, which is over capacity, Alamed said.Īlthough rabbits are often spotted across Vermont, domesticated rabbits shouldn’t be let out into the wild because they ultimately will have a “brutal death,” Erdogan said. “It can multiply and get out of hand very fast if it’s not remedied,” Alamed said.īy Erdogan’s count, at least 46 stray rabbits have already been documented across Vermont this year, including nearly half in Burlington. And with rabbits' gestation period only being about 30 days, unspayed rabbits are able to reproduce rapidly, which could quickly make the stray rabbit issue in Vermont much worse. Owner-surrenders have been frequent in Alamed’s eight years at the organization, but the stray rabbit problem appears to be fairly new. The Humane Society of Chittenden County has received an increasing number of calls from the public about the stray rabbit population around Burlington and Winooski, according to Erin Alamed, the shelter and volunteer director for the Humane Society of Chittenden County, which also takes in dogs, cats and other pets. “There's lots of data for stray cats and dogs,” Erdogan said, “but not so much for rabbits.”Įrdogan is not alone in noticing the trend. So she took up the charge, tracking stray rabbit sightings as part of her efforts to help save them.