Help Save Rabbits This Chinese New Year

ARTICLE SHARED - The House Rabbit Society - Year of The Rabbit

Usher into the Year of the Rabbit by buying HRSS' exclusive red packets to save a rabbit now!

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE RABBIT SOCIETY AND SINGAPORE HOUSE RABBIT SOCIETY URGE PEOPLE NOT TO BUY RABBITS FOR LUNAR YEAR OF THE RABBIT

RICHMOND, CA/SINGAPORE (January 27, 2011) - House Rabbit Society (HRS) and House Rabbit Society Singapore (HRSS) strongly urge people not to acquire live rabbits for the Year of the Rabbit unless they are willing to make a 10-year commitment to properly care for the animals. In the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Rabbit occurs every twelve years. Asian animal welfare groups like HRSS are warning of an inevitable outcome this year: abandoned and neglected bunnies.

In Asian countries, and in Asian-American communities in the United States, there is a growing demand for pet rabbits, who are thought to bring luck during the Year of the Rabbit. Once the year is over, the rabbits are often abandoned. HRSS reports that in the 1999 Year of the Rabbit, rabbits in Singapore were abandoned at that nation's shelters at twice the rate that they were in 1998.

Both HRS and HRSS point out that while rabbits are intelligent, curious, loving pets, they are not "lucky charms." In addition, they are not low maintenance pets. Margo DeMello, president of HRS, encourages rabbit lovers to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit by purchasing artwork and gifts adorned with rabbits. Items can even be purchased from rabbit rescue groups, which then benefit rabbits, such as the rabbit-themed angbao (red envelopes in which to give money) sold by HRSS. "Rabbits are not 'low maintenance' pets," says DeMello; they require at least the same amount of work as a cat or dog, and often more."

Mary Cotter, vice-president of HRS, says that many of the rabbits purchased for luck will never live to see their first birthday. Some will die from neglect, while others will be abandoned in local parks or left at animal shelters. "It is irresponsible for pet stores to push rabbits during the Year of the Rabbit" says Cotter. "Unless people are willing to take full responsibility for the possible 10-year lifespan of a live rabbit, they should not acquire live rabbits. They should decorate their homes with rabbit-themed items instead."

Children, especially, do not realize that rabbits are fragile, ground-loving creatures who will struggle when held and are easily hurt when dropped. Also, it is near impossible for a child to commit to a rabbit for 10 years. All too often, the child loses interest, and the rabbit ends up unwanted.

"Many pets in Singapore suffer unnecessarily because of ignorance on the part of their owners," commented HRSS President Jacelyn Heng. "During the Year of the Rabbit, many people buy rabbits for the wrong reason and do not fully understand the responsibilities of keeping an animal at home. The problem is particularly acute for rabbits because people wrongly assume that they are low-maintenance starter pets for children." Jacelyn added, "Many pet shops in Singapore are also not well informed about the care needed for a pet rabbit and often provide wrong or false information to unknowing first-time owners."

For people willing to make a long term commitment to a pet rabbit, HRS and the HRSS recommend adopting a rabbit from local animal shelters or rabbit rescue groups instead of purchasing them, as there are simply too many rabbits desperately in need of a good home. For those who are unsure about the commitment that they are able to offer, toys or rabbit-themed gifts would do just as well for this Lunar New Year's celebrations. Let's make this Year of the Rabbit a truly enjoyable time for our rabbits.

For people willing to make the long-term commitment, here are a few points to consider before acquiring a rabbit:

Housing: Bunnies need a roomy indoor space to call their own. There should be room for a litterbox, toys, food and water bowls. Playpens or puppy exercise pens are a good alternative to the small cages sold in pet stores.

Playtime: Rabbits need plenty of exercise and should be allowed at least 30 hours out-of-cage running time in a rabbit-proofed area of the home per week.

Outdoors: Rabbits should never be left outdoors unsupervised. They can, literally, be frightened to death when approached by predators such as dogs, cats, raccoons and owls. They can also dig under fences to escape.

Litter Box: Rabbits, once spayed or neutered, will readily use litterboxes that are place in one corner of the rabbit's cage; the rabbit's running space should contain at least one additional box. Use dust-free litter--not the clumping kind, and no softwood shavings.

Diet: Bunnies need fresh water, unlimited fresh, grass hay, 1-2 cups of fresh vegetables, and a small serving (1/4 c per 5 lb. rabbit) of plain rabbit pellets each day.

Health: Like dogs and cats, rabbits should be spayed or neutered. The risk of uterine cancer in unspayed female rabbits is alarmingly high, and unneutered males are likely to spray.

Grooming: Rabbits shed their coat 3-4 times per year; use a flea comb and brush away excess fur.

A person who chooses a baby rabbit as a pet must:

Have lots of time, a household that can withstand some chewing, and a stable residence.

Expect an unneutered/unspayed baby may spray urine on the walls. Know that neutering/spaying (at four to six months) will greatly alleviate or stop the problem.

Expect accidents when baby forgets the location of the litterbox.

Allow the rabbit at least 30 hours a week of free time outside her cage.

Know the cute baby will soon be an adult rabbit and may have a different personality.

House Rabbit Society is an international, volunteer-based nonprofit organization with two primary goals: 1) to rescue abandoned rabbits and find permanent homes for them; 2) to educate the public and assist humane societies in teaching proper rabbit care. HRS has fosterers, educators, and chapters around the world, and a rabbit adoption and education center in Richmond, California.

The House Rabbit Society Singapore is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to rabbit welfare and awareness. The HRSS runs a fostering program to rescue and re-home abandoned rabbits and participates in numerous public events to educate the general public about rabbit care and behavior. 

Angpao are small envelopes or packets (traditionally red) that are used in Asian communities to give gifts of money.

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RELATED BLOG POSTS:

Year of the Rabbit: Deadly start for impulse pet buys

2011 : Year of the Rabbit

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LINKS

The House Rabbit Society

The House Rabbit Society Singapore

'Less than 20 years' left to save Orangutans

I visited Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary when I was 14 and lived in Malaysia with my family for 4 months. It's sad to think that these beautiful animals could be extinct one day. I would love to work with primates after completing my studies, I think it would be amazing to help with their breeding program.. one day, one day ..

The sad story is that Palm Oil Deforestation is the biggest killer of the Orangutan.
Say No To Palm Oil and join the campaign to have palm oil listed in all ingredients on our food products.

Video: Don't Palm Us Off

www.zoo.org.au


Did you know?

We share 97% of our DNA with Orang-utans. You could say they are our wild cousins.

Palm Oil typically costs the lives of up to 50 Orang-utans each week.

Over 85% of the worlds palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia.

In SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil production

The food you are buying could be pushing Orangutans to extinction. Palm oil is found in about 40 percent of the food products on our shelves and its rampant cultivation is destroying the Orangutans habitat at an alarming rate.

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The following article shared from NEWS.com.au

THE world has less than 20 years left to save the orangutan, according to conservationists who predict the charismatic red ape will become extinct if no action is taken to protect its jungle habitat.

There are thought to be 50,000-60,000 orangutans still living in the wild in Malaysia and Indonesia, but deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations have taken a heavy toll.

"The orangutans' habitat is fragmented and isolated by plantations, they can't migrate, they can't find mates to produce babies,'' Tsubouchi Toshinori from the Borneo Conservation Trust said.

Environmentalists are calling for the creation of wildlife "corridors'' in Malaysia to link the scraps of jungle where orangutans have become trapped by decades of encroachment by loggers and oil palm firms.

Mr Tsubouchi said that although studies have predicted orangutans will disappear within 50 years if their habitat continues to vanish, action needs to be taken within the next two decades to stall that process.

"We have to establish the corridors in 10 or 20 years, otherwise we won't be able to do anything later,'' he said.

Some 80 per cent of the world's orangutans live in Borneo, which is split between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the rest are found in Indonesia's Sumatra province.

"What we have left today is maybe only 10 per cent of what we used to have before,'' Marc Ancrenaz from the environmental group Hutan said.

Hutan focuses on conserving the 11,000 orangutans in Malaysia's Sabah state in Borneo.

An aerial survey carried out by Hutan and wildlife authorities in Sabah last year revealed some 1000 orangutan treetop "nests'' located in 100 small patches of forest completely surrounded by palm oil plantations.

Mr Ancrenaz said that if immediate action was taken, there is still a good chance of ensuring the long-term survival of the primate as there is still enough genetic diversity for it to thrive.

"Unlike the rhinoceros whose numbers are so few, we still have a decent size population for the orangutan,'' he said.

"If they are going to become extinct, it will not be in the next 10 years."

Experts say that wildlife corridors would enable orangutans to move across the fragmented landscape and alongside rivers to seek food and mates.

The corridors could be used by other endangered species such as the pygmy elephant and rhinoceros, but progress on the initiative has been slow.

The Malaysian palm oil industry, often criticised for its poor environmental performance, pledged to fund the corridors at an October conference but nothing has yet been done.

Malaysian Palm Oil Council chief executive Yusof Basiron said he was waiting for environmentalists to advise how much land would be needed, and denied that lack of action was threatening the species' future.

"Last time they said the orangutans will go extinct in 2012, now they say in 15 or 20 years - why keep on shifting the goal posts?'' he said.

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Related Sites & Info:

Don't Palm Us Off

Palm Oil Action

Australian Orangutan Project

Sepilok Orangutan Appeal - UK

Sepilok Orangutan Centre - Borneo

How to Identify Unlabelled Palm Oil