The Big Rescue
On the 8th February 2018 ARC was involved in its biggest rescue of 44 rabbits, the majority of which were Californian cross youngsters, some as young as one week old. These poor souls had originally been bred for the meat trade and were then taken in by a disreputable rescue. Here they had all been living in awful conditions . . . breeding and fighting, unneutered and unvaccinated.
Most of the bunnies arrived in a reasonable condition but a few had bad bites suspected to be from rats, from fighting or trying to escape. One female, Nellie, had a huge gash in her stomach. Merlin had a large abscess on his back, probably from a rat bite and poor Binky had an infected testicle from a bite which had to be removed… ouch! One of the Mums, Tui, was pregnant again and had eleven more babies. Sadly they all died… she was just too exhausted.
They were all given the TLC they needed, vaccinated against Myxo/VHD1 and RHD2, neutered and treated for mites. Apart from sadly losing the babies, one of the week old babies and Nellie (following complication after her spay), the remaining buns have thrived and are now all well and healthy. To date we have rehomed all but two of them (both boys, Scott and Dandy) to wonderful homes.
It was a difficult time for the rabbit rehoming team, both financially and emotionally but we got through it and just wish we could find homes for the two remaining boys.
To celebrate the anniversary of this rescue, we set up a Facebook Page called ‘ARCs Californian’s and Friends’ – http://www.facebook.com/groups/2951240894889954/?ref=bookmarks to get updates from their new owners and to share photos of how they are now.