100 rabbits in search of right home

Advocates say people need to know what they're getting into before they adopt one as a pet.

By LINDA GIBSON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 31, 2001

TAMPA -- A rabbit hopped into Harold and Jorja Daniels' back yard one recent morning and quickly became part of their three-cat household.

Most rabbits don't find good homes so easily.

Few people realize they can chew through carpeting, baseboards and electrical wires, or they enjoy burrowing into a mattress from underneath the bed.

That's why so many pet rabbits, bought impulsively as babies, get turned loose outside or dumped at animal shelters.

"They're a lot of work," said Dana Hakes, a beverage company marketing manager who organized the Tampa chapter of the national, non-profit House Rabbit Society. "I get at least five phone calls a week from people looking for a good home for their rabbit."

Hakes and volunteers in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Hernando and Sarasota counties are providing foster homes for 100 abandoned or stray rabbits while they search for permanent homes.

Forty are from a Hernando County home where more than 150 animals recently were seized from a neglectful owner. Another four were among 67 animals taken last week from a Lutz home, along with cats, dogs and birds.

In Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, more than 1,000 rabbits are turned in to shelters each year. Those who care for them say few people understand what they're getting into when they get a rabbit.

Experienced owners recommend wrapping or hiding all electrical wires, and giving old phone books to rabbits to keep them from gnawing the furniture. They must gnaw something because their teeth never stop growing.

"I used to sell baby bunnies but quit after the first year," said Leigh Toborowsky, who runs RainForest Pets in Tampa.

"I learned that up to 90 percent are given away, dumped at shelters, left outside to fend for themselves or kept in cages."

Because rabbits pose challenges, it's hard to find suitable homes. Hakes will not let them go to people with young children or to people who plan to keep them outdoors, where the heat can make rabbits miserable.

So who makes a good owner? People like Harold and Jorja Daniels, Hakes said.

As lifelong animal lovers, it was natural for the Danielses to take the stray rabbit into their lanai for protection while they searched the neighborhood for its owner.

They had no idea that Mama, as she's now called, was pregnant.

She built a nest in the back of a cat carrier from her own fur, wood shavings Harold Daniels had put down for her and a piece of the lanai's carpet she chewed off the floor. Nine weeks ago, she gave birth to nine babies.

Daniels built them a spacious screened cage on the lanai. He already has had to bolster it with wood posts and rocks to cover the holes they chewed in the screen.

He keeps a floor fan running and places plastic bottles full of frozen water in the cage for them to lie next to and keep cool.

The Danielses, who work as administrators for the Medicaid program, intend to keep Mama and a white male with black markings Harold has named J.K., the initials of his favorite singer, Jewel.

"He'll sit in my lap for an hour, watching TV," Daniels said. "Then he climbs up and sits on my shoulder -- don't cha, baby?" he cooed at the 2-pound fur bundle he held.

-- Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382.

To adopt a rabbit

For information about adopting abandoned rabbits, contact Dana Hakes at (813) 891-6144, or check out the House Rabbit Society Web site at www.rabbit.org.

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