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The RescueTwo or three years ago, the Staff of The Sanctuary was informed about a woman living in a nearby town who had allowed her rabbits to breed out of control. At that time it was reported that she had 300 rabbits or so. Not much we could do about it. Educators contacted her and gave her info on rabbit care. The media picked up the story and people flocked to catch their very own "free bunny!" Several rabbits were taken by a man who took them to run free on his twenty two acres. In fact, he came repeatedly to pick up more rabbits. Eventually he quit returning her phone calls. Had another large warren been created? Or was he tired of watching them disappear, caught by coyotes?Recently, she contacted one of our peers in the area and explained that she was moving. The new owners did not want the rabbits. Go figure.  The rabbit's "caretaker" agreed to pay for the spays and neuters if we would help her catch them. She further agreed to build a safe environment for them at her new home. We were to foster them until the yard was completed and she was to reimburse us for the expenses of feeding them and our transportation costs.The size of the warren had dissipated greatly as neighborhood cats had begun coming in, killing the youngest. We later found that it was very likely that the adult males were killing young males. Of the younger than twelve week rabbits we found, of those that had been there before the adult males were taken away, all were female. The yard was completely enclosed, rabbits could not escape easily. Neighborhood dogs discouraged departure as well. This meant that to remain in a position of domination, males had to curb the threat of new males. We began the job of catching the rabbits that were left. Capturing the rabbits meant going everyday, except for about five days, for seven and a half weeks to the site, an hour away. A few sleepless nights were spent laying in wait for rabbits to come up out of their burrows. Elaborate traps were built. Burrows were dug up, exposing caverns large enough for a human to lay in. All adult males were captured early on. A few females who did not appear to be nursing were also caught, one of whom gave birth to six babies the day after her capture. Another girl came into the house and gave birth to eight babies in a closet. She and the babies were taken to The Sanctuary. This left, to our knowledge, fourteen girls and an undetermined number of babies. Seventeen were caught, spayed and neutered and sent with the woman to her new home. 
The new owners moved in on July 8, 2002. According to the escrow agreement we had until August 8, 2002 to capture the rabbits. The new owners immediately assisted us by capturing three rabbits. All three were nursing mothers. We had intended on leaving nursing mothers until the very end to give their babies a chance to grow up and come out of the burrows. For a few days after picking up the three girls, we found newborns laying dead in the yard.
Additionally, we found the bodies of several two to four week old babies, killed and left laying by neighborhood cats. One neighbor reported that after the former owner left, her cat began bringing in two dead babies a day for two weeks. The luxury of waiting for newborns to reach a safe age no longer seemed viable. We did not know how many adults were still pregnant, and the safety of all remaining babies was not something we could insure. We began catching everyone that we could. In all, we saved an additional fifty one rabbits. There were the fourteen adults we had counted. We also have found ourselves caring for twelve surviving infants from the two litters mentioned earlier and an additional six from another mother, born soon after her capture. We also caught four babies under three weeks old, probably closer to two weeks, one of whom is featured in the first picture on this page in a photo taken two weeks after she was brought in. This brought the total of infants in foster care at The Sanctuary to twenty two. Another fifteen babies between four and eight weeks old were also caught.More About This Rescue
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