We took a posse to help the rabbits at a rural shelter in Illinois. Unlike my visit last time, the turkeys were outside. The goats (the big one was named Elvis) and chickens kept us company.

Several healthy rabbits got to go home with us. Veronica and Roberta (Satins) and Iris (Californian) are below, and Dawn is holding one of the beautiful Flemmies going to Red Door Animal Shelter in Chicago.

Dr. Becker generously donated her time and expertise. All the rabbits were examined, treated for ear mites, and had nail trims. Unfortunately not all the rabbits were in good shape.

There were 16 rabbits at the shelter when we arrived today (I had already taken one on the previous visit). We left with 12, most heading to rescue, but some will be euthanized. The gray dwarf was supposed to have been helped to a better place when I was there three weeks ago, but they never got around to it, declaring he was “happy.” (!) Because of that, we decided it would be in the rabbits’ best interests to take any who were similarly ill and suffering. One rabbit had a bite wound to his penis shaft. Dr. Becker couldn’t tell if urine was coming out where it was supposed to or through the hole in the side. She is going to attempt to surgically repair the injury. Another rabbit had terrible sores on the bottoms of all four paws.
We left behind two minilops and two minirexes, divided into the two large hutches. We hope that the reduced numbers of rabbits (originally nine males in one hutch and seven females in the other) will reduce the fighting, although you can only expect so much from unaltered rabbits in a stressful environment. We left very frustrated by the lack of caring on the shelter’s part–some of this came from our differences in backgrounds/philosophies on rabbits as companion animals, but they were not receptive to even our vet’s expert opinion on which rabbits needed treatment and why they couldn’t be kept in groups like they were. To not consider disfiguring infection or animals so ill they are nearly falling over a problem just doesn’t make a lot of sense–either you’re clueless or cruel.
Helping 13 is good, anyway. (sigh)