Louisiana Transport and Lessons Learned
I have been working in animal shelters for ten years and what I love the best about it is that the learning process never ends. Just when you think you’ve heard every excuse, seen every cruelty, and learned every lesson that the sheltering world has to offer, something happens to change everything that you believed to be right. We are all in the animal welfare world to pursue the same goal: to save as many animals as we can, though we know that we can’t save them all. Sometimes the latter part of that statement escapes our good judgment, and everything we have worked for is put in jeopardy. Here is my story:
Through the HRS educators email list, a plea for help from Louisiana came across the wire. Thirty-five bunnies were being kept in deplorable conditions and they needed help. I immediately deleted that email, knowing full well that there was no way I could help from Maine. Not three days later my shelter manager forwarded the same email to me that she received through another national animal shelter list. She asked me if there was any way we could help since transportation was being offered. I assessed our bunny population and came to the conclusion that we could take on four to six of these little Netherland dwarf rabbits. By altering them and pairing them up, I would only need space for three cages in our Small Animal Room. At that point, adoptions had been good and space was definitely available. The Louisiana contact person was notified and the details worked out; we would be getting the rabbits in a few days via an airline. But those few days turned into two weeks, and this is where the problems started. While awaiting the arrival of the Louisiana bunnies, our shelter continued to take in bunnies and guinea pigs from contracting towns, filling the Small Animal Room to capacity.
The day the Louisiana group was to arrive, we took in two more rabbits (both returns from previous adoptions) and a decision had to be made. We were more than full; we were overflowing with bunnies! It was too late to turn away the dwarfs, as they had been driven up in a van all the way from Louisiana, not flown as originally promised. Two bunnies were euthanized that day, and I had to decide which ones. (Later this decision would haunt my dreams and cause me more anguish than usual.) I learned a long time ago that what’s done is done and you can’t look back and think "what if" or you will drive yourself crazy and soon burn out in this field, so I pressed onward and began getting cages ready for the new arrivals.
Pathetic cuteness is the only way to describe these Louisiana bunnies. Two wire-bottomed cages lined with straw, feces, urine, and food arrived on October 14th with three frightened bunnies in each. Malnourished, with fur missing, and in desperate need of a bath, these darlings had been through so much in their short lives and were relying on me to give them the second chance they so deserved. I couldn’t help but fall in love with each and every one of them. I set them up in two cages, boys in one and girls in the other. They had plenty of hiding places, rugs to dig on, toys to play with, yummy hay and pellets, and crocks full of water. I thought they would be full of joy, running and kicking their heels up and munching on the yummies I had provided, but all they did was hide.
They hid and cuddled together quivering. I had not considered the stress that this transport had caused them. Up until now, they had spent their entire lives in solitary confinement, outside in 100-degree temperatures, fighting for food with wild rats and drinking stale water. They had not known the love of a human, or the luxuries of living indoors. Knowing that it would take time for them to acclimate to their new environment, I tucked them in for the night and hoped for a brighter day tomorrow.
Tomorrow came with a loud, rainy wind storm outside - not a good way to start a day. The buns seemed fine when I cleaned them in the morning. A few were out investigating their area, and the water bowls were empty. None of the girls had used the litter box, but boys’ box was overflowing, and droppings lined the bottom of their enclosure. The girls had not touched their food, but I figured this was due to stress and gave them some fresh hay and greens which they slowly investigated and began to nibble on. I only handled them enough to move them out of my way while I cleaned their enclosures. The vet was due to come the next day, and the new bunnies would have a thorough exam and spay/neuter appointments made. All was good, everyone seemed content, life was okay in my little bunny land.
Five o’clock came and I began my nightly rounds of giving treats and saying good night to my bunny friends. The smallest girl hadn’t come out of hiding all day so I decided to love her up a bit before leaving. That’s when I felt it - the undeniable feeling of fluid in her lungs as her chest vibrated in my hands. I looked at her little face and saw the discharge under her nose and listened as she struggled to breathe through her nostrils. I put her back with her friends, shut off the lights, and wept. What had I done? There were nine other bunnies in that room before the six dwarfs came. Quarantine is impossible in our shelter, and now I had exposed all of those other bunnies to this infection. The vet would come tomorrow and help me work through this crisis, though, and hopefully no bun would have to be put to sleep. But that didn’t make it all better. In retrospect, what I had done was very irresponsible and in the long run did not really save that many lives - remember that two bunnies had to be euthanized that morning. They were healthy rabbits!
What have I learned from this experience? Rabbits are overpopulated everywhere and rescuing from one’s own area is always best. We must remember that rabbits are not as easily adopted as puppies and small dogs, and the stresses that rabbits undergo affect them far worse than many other animals. I may have saved these rabbits from immediate death, but might possibly have to euthanize them later. Might it have been kinder to have let these bunnies die peacefully in a place they called home? Maybe. But wouldn’t it have been better for the current bunnies in my care had I not agreed to take these dwarfs? Definitely! Especially for Bintu and Bunsen.
