RABBITATS RESCUE SOCIETY

Rabbitats stayed the course with a continued focus on adoption and foster programs spay/neuter and vaccination clinics awareness events sanctuary rescue and our AbandonedRabbits.com map with efforts also directed to capacity expansion. We continued to reduce our intake numbers in order to adjust comfortable capacity limits after close to 100 unexpected intakes the previous year. We took in 68 new rabbits including 14 ferals 20 abandoned pets and 24 surrenders and had 10 babies born at the shelter. We had 193 rabbits leave our care including 63 deaths mostly from our very old seniors ranks with 16 shelter adoptions 32 foster-to-adopt and 31 shelter fosters. Our Bunny Cafe partnerships saw 31 adoptions and we transferred 33 rabbits to two new micro-sanctuaries and four to another rescue. Over the course of the year our shelter numbers were adjusted back to our rough capacity of 350. We ended the year with 54 adoptables 213 sanctuary ferals 39 special needs and 31 rabbits under medical care. We staged spay/neuter clinics in April and October with a total of 53 rabbits sterilized and staged multiple public vaccine clinics and private vet visits vaccinating 1164 against Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. We also staged multiple rabbit education events including many that allowed people to ‘meet and treat’ rabbits while learning about their behaviour and care.

The City of Richmond assisted with a small grant to develop a model for a small enclosure to allow capacity building to prepare for a campaign to encourage safe secure and comfortable backyard adoptions. We worked with the City of Vancouver to help control loose rabbits in their municipality. Late in the year with the assistance of a gaming grant we outlined a shelter revamp designed to reduce maintenance time and keep rabbits out of cages. We also put plans in play for a new BC Rabbit Alliance and addressed some municipal issues for its inauguration. And Rabbitats staged a three-day presentation and formed a relationship with the organizers of a major agricultural show as part of the society’s new rural rescue push expanding our outreach to rural properties and organizations in an effort to increase the number of destinations for rescued rabbits.