ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — It was a quick handover in the RNC parking lot, chosen for the neutral space the police station offers to people exchanging items after arranging online to meet.
In this case, an animal-rescue volunteer got out of her vehicle and carefully gave a small, black rabbit to a grinning 10-year-old girl, who promptly snuggled him inside her winter coat.
“At first I wasn’t sure he was alive or not, but when I found out he was alive I was hoping with all my heart that we would be able to get him back,” Lily Oates told The Telegram, stroking the bunny’s velvet ears next to her neck.
The rabbit handover ended an exchange between the Roche-Oates family and local small animal-rescue organization Hoppy Homes Rescue over recent days, which spilled into social media and instigated an online discussion about the rights and responsibilities of pet owners and animal-rescue charities, as well as food security.
"For the first time in his life, he decided to go exploring.” — Christopher Oates
Shadow, the rabbit in question, has been living with Christopher Oates, Carol Roche and their daughter Lily for five years. He “lives like a prince,” Oates says, and spends much of his time on their back deck in a custom-made triple-layer hutch.
“He comes in at least three times a day for snacks and cuddles,” Oates says, explaining how Shadow scratches at the window to let the family know he wants to come inside. He sits next to Lily in the kitchen as she has breakfast and is treated to his own fresh fruit and veggies.
During last month’s major snowstorm, the family brought Shadow inside and kept him in until they could clear the snow from the deck, but Oates says it wasn’t long before Shadow got cabin fever and wanted out.
“The snow was so high that it came up to the railings around the deck and he was able to jump up on a box in his play area, jump up on some snow from there and be level with the rails, which he just walked over. For the first time in his life, he decided to go exploring.”
For three days Shadow explored his own yard and that of the neighbours before he left and didn’t come home.
“We spent the next three days walking around the neighbourhood calling out for him. I searched online, I called the local animal hospital, which said they had seen a posting about a rabbit that fit the description, but when I searched I couldn’t find it online,” Oates says. “By the fourth day we sort of had to come to terms with the worst possibly being the case.”
Two days later, Oates found the Facebook posting and recognized Shadow. He contacted the poster, who told him the rabbit had been turned over to Hoppy Homes Rescue.
In operation since 2008, Hoppy Homes is a registered charity staffed by volunteers and run on donations, which takes in rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds, hamsters and other small animals found roaming outside, and cares for them in foster homes until their owner can be located or they can be adopted into a suitable forever home.
Judy Perry, director of the organization, says small animals come into Hoppy Homes’ care either directly from owners, through other animal shelters or, as is often the case, after they have been abandoned. Hoppy Homes adopted out 30 rabbits last year and currently has 21 in foster care, with a waitlist of eight more.
“We have had too many instances of finding domestic rabbits, guinea pigs and rats left outside with no owner ever coming forward and no reports of lost pets or contact from owners seeking a lost pet,” she says. “We have even taken in animals that people abandoned outside in or near cages or left in cages in apartments after tenants moved out.”
Perry says Hoppy Homes’ protocol, as per City of St. John’s animal control regulations, is to hold an animal presumed lost or abandoned for five days before trying to adopt it.
“Our policy is to spay or neuter animals before adopting them out in order to help reduce the rabbit population,” Perry told The Telegram. “In this instance, (Shadow) was in our care for five days, in addition to the first day he spent with a community member before he was brought to be neutered on the sixth day.”
Oates says his family wasn’t pleased to learn Shadow had been neutered, since it isn’t something they would have done. The rabbit spends three weeks every summer in Mobile on a homestead belonging to friends, where he serves as a “stud” bunny for the purposes of breeding rabbits for food.
“It was done without our consent,” Oates says. “I don’t see a problem with (the organization’s policy) in normal times, but after a storm like this when so many animals were lost or went missing, I would hope that they would sort of suspend that kind of policy. It would make sense to give us more time to find our animals.”
Oates says he was further shocked when Perry told him he could have Shadow back if he paid the $335.80 vet bill.
“I was pretty straightforward about what I wanted and I never said I was going to pay what they were asking. I said we’re going to do what we have to do to get him back. I was hoping she would come to her senses and just say, ‘OK, it’s not fair to put this charge on you, we’ll charge you the $50 or $60 that anyone else would pay to adopt a rabbit.' I would have been fine with that from the start.”
Perry says her organization waited for two days after that for Oates to pay the vet bill, learning he had posted on Facebook about the situation in the meantime. On Monday, Oates demanded the rabbit be returned that day, she says, and the organization decided to absorb the costs and return Shadow for a $50 impound fee.
Perry declined to comment on the issue of breeding domestic rabbits for meat, saying it is not part of Hoppy Homes' mandate.
Perry told Oates in an email that the organization and the vet clinic that performed the surgery on Shadow as requested have been experiencing harassment as a result of his Facebook posts, and asked him to remove them. Oates says he won’t delete the posts, but has edited them to include an update about the resolution of the situation.
“I think it’s something that should be on the record and people should be aware of this happening,” he said. “It could allow people to learn where to go to find rabbits if they’re lost or how to avoid this happening in the future to another rabbit.”
Oates says his family will see how Shadow fares at home now that he has been neutered. If he seems to need a bunny companion, they say they’ll consider adopting a second rabbit from Hoppy Homes.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
