LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Unwanted pets dumped. It is a continuing problem FOX5 has been reporting on in the Vegas Valley but it is not just dogs and cats.
Bunnies are also being let loose to fend for themselves — often at local parks. That’s according to the area’s only rabbit rescue, Bunnies Matter Rescue
Tuesday, they had a successful rescue mission at Sunset Park. Not only were pet bunnies not native to Southern Nevada dumped there, so were avocados which are deadly for rabbits. They were spotted right under a coyote warning sign. A jogger and several other people noticed the pets and reached out to the rabbit rescue.
Rescuers from Bunnies Matter set up cat traps with lettuce and carrots inside and sat and waited for hours until the rabbits, first the white and then the gray and white, took the bait.
“Our volunteer went out this morning and it took to almost 3 o’clock to capture both of them,” reported Dave Schweiger, founder of Bunnies Matter Rescue.
Capturing them quickly is a must. Pet rabbits won’t survive long in the wild.
“Usually, you have a day or two to capture them…There’s coyotes, hawks, owls, and people with dogs,” Schweiger explained.
Schweiger says the dumping is constant and happening all over the valley.
“Parks, apartment complexes, neighborhoods, it is way up and that seems to be the cycle when the economy is rough. People are getting rid of their animals…Right now, all rescues and shelters are full,” Schweiger revealed.
“Why I got into rescue is because someone dumped them in my neighborhood,” Schweiger added.
Schweiger took FOX5 to a neighborhood where rabbits were dumped and are multiplying. Since they are domesticated, Schweiger feeds the 70 to 100 rabbits there.
They immediately made room for the Sunset Park bunnies inside the shelter as they arrived just hours after their rescue and now await a new home.
The rescue currently has more than over 70 bunnies. It costs $300 to $500 to fix a rabbit which they have to do to make sure they do not multiply.
Bunnies Matter is a non-profit rescue and relies on donations.
The Bunnies Matter shelter is at Floyd Lamb Park. The building given to the rescue by the city in 2019 after dumped bunnies there multiplied into the hundreds.
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