Thanks for the other side of the story. There were few details on the news. It seemed strange to me that all were in good health when they were picked up, but weeks later, many had upper respiratory problems! But then I don\'t know much about those kinds of medical problems.
Sorry about your friend. The HRS never had my support and it makes me angry when these things can happen.
I wonder if HRS even knows how to care for rabbits properly at all, they had a picture on a site of one of her Woolies completely shaved they said it was so badly matted it had to be shaved ha! You shouldn`t shave a Wooly for whatever reason, if you must you could clip it I suppose but I`ve never had to clip one of mine so I wouldn`t really know.
Thanks Legendgirl for the insight on what you know about these people and their circumstances. I too had heard that their side of the story was glossed over and the facts of the case extremely exagerated to support the act of seizing the rabbits. People only hear one side of the story and then it is one more breeder to add to the list of \'why breeders need to go\'. Most of the people who inspect (if you can call it that) are not trained and do not know what proper care for a rabbit entails. When you go to the web sites of alot of these rescue places, the care given to these \'rescued\' rabbits are enough to bring on illness (improper diet, too many housed together ect...) and then the breeder gets the blame for having ill animals as well as aquires an undeserved reputation for animal abuse. There are so many out there who truly deserve to have their animals taken away from them but there are so many others that just get caught up in a moment of stress in their lives. A helping hand would be a better alternative for them than to loose everything. Then the owner would get the help they need, get to keep their animals, and the rescue societies would not be over burdened. But then they also wouldn\'t be able to go public with yet another bad breeder and the plea for more money to help care for these poor rescued animals . Thanks again Legendgirl for the other side of the story.
Thanks for sharing your side of the story. That newspaper article did make me wonder. Sad to say that officers like that make the good rescues and AC look very bad. Sounds like he was throwing his weight around with them. We have a cop that does that with people here. Last year he accused me of running an illegal business in town by breeding rabbits. because someone complained about them. He said there was a zoning law on them, and I could only keep two, out of a herd of 40-70 rabbits. He and the city lawyer walked onto the property and took pictures of everything from inside and outside of my garage where I keep the rabbits. I almost believed him, and ended up selling out for a few months. But I held onto 6 or seven of my very best breeding bucks. Then i started to get donwright dirty with them, and fought it the smart way. I farmed off everything. The officer said he was turning the report and paper work into the city office, and we\'d get copies of it in two weeks. Well, tw weeks went by. No papers. So, I called the city office, and told the manager what was going on. He had no clue about the whole deal. But then turned around and said that rabbits were \'livestock.\' So then i was told I could keep the bunnies right up till the next city meeting. Because they were going to discuss it, and they were gonna discuss putting in a new ordinance against them. The lawyer was supposed to bring it up. i attended the meeting. Lawyer didn\'t show up. I was smart and kept my mouth shut during the whole thing. However they did discuss it at the following meeting. But before that meeting, i spread the word on them about what they were gonna do about altering the animal ordinance. The FFA members just happened to be at that meeting, and had a little scream out with them over it. Suddenly the city manager backs down, and says the whole thing wasn\'t handled properly, and that he didn\'t agree with that. Ok. yeah right. He was behind alot of it. He backed off to save his little tush. Plus alot of the community was angry with him over it.
That cop hasn\'t bothered me since then. I know a couple of decent cops on the force that hate him. And the rabbit thing made them hate him more because of them knowing me personally. They have since then nicknamed me the illegal rabbit business violator, as a joke.
lol.
In fact one of them tried to bring me some business a couple of weeks ago. He had a guy come up to the station asking if they knew of anyone who sold rabbits in the area. Was funny becase the guy pulled into our driveway, and the cop backed in behind him. My mom panicked. She anseres the dor and says I didnt do anything wrong! He points to the other guy and says I know you still sell rabbits, this guy is looking for some. Turns out I knew the guy. But didnt have what he was looking for. He wanted six week old babies. I didnt have any. So as he and the cop started to leave I asked the cop if he was helping me out with my illegal business by bringing me customers. He laughs and says no I aint the---- oh never mind I\'d better not say it!
Anyhow I got some of my rabbits given back to me. Now ive got some ofthe best standard chins and floridas around. So it kinda worked out real good for me, although it was a sucky situation and hell to go through.
legendgirl Wrote:I wonder if HRS even knows how to care for rabbits properly at all, they had a picture on a site of one of her Woolies completely shaved they said it was so badly matted it had to be shaved ha! You shouldn`t shave a Wooly for whatever reason, if you must you could clip it I suppose but I`ve never had to clip one of mine so I wouldn`t really know.
Long haired breeds can get severely matted. There was a situation involving a shelt up here that took in a bunch of angoras from someone who was abusing and neglecting them. It wasn\'t a show breeder. It was 1 person who threw two rabbits in a cage and let them breed, and and in breed. Most of them had matts so bad that they were right down to the skin. They had to shave them, it was so bad. And it was one of the good shelters that took them in. So maybe that jersey did come from a sucky situation where he was uncared for and matted.
Even though hrs can be bad with care and stuff, there are many shelter workers and rescuers at the bottom of the barrel that are very rabbit savy. Those are few and far between, but they work their butts off to save the bunnies that come into the shelters. And either fosters them in their own homes till someone adopts them, or transports them through drive for life into area rescues.
Just in case you care to look for yourself, the site is (
http://www.mnhouserabbit.org). I would like to know how long it was after they confiscated the rabbit did they wait to take those pictures? It sounds like the rabbits were healthy when they picked them up but some got sick later. If they were kept in a toxic situation, wouldn\'t they be sick at the time they were confiscated? Just wondering.
dixonsrabbitry Wrote:legendgirl Wrote:I wonder if HRS even knows how to care for rabbits properly at all, they had a picture on a site of one of her Woolies completely shaved they said it was so badly matted it had to be shaved ha! You shouldn`t shave a Wooly for whatever reason, if you must you could clip it I suppose but I`ve never had to clip one of mine so I wouldn`t really know.
Long haired breeds can get severely matted. There was a situation involving a shelt up here that took in a bunch of angoras from someone who was abusing and neglecting them. It wasn\'t a show breeder. It was 1 person who threw two rabbits in a cage and let them breed, and and in breed. Most of them had matts so bad that they were right down to the skin. They had to shave them, it was so bad. And it was one of the good shelters that took them in. So maybe that jersey did come from a sucky situation where he was uncared for and matted.
Even though hrs can be bad with care and stuff, there are many shelter workers and rescuers at the bottom of the barrel that are very rabbit savy. Those are few and far between, but they work their butts off to save the bunnies that come into the shelters. And either fosters them in their own homes till someone adopts them, or transports them through drive for life into area rescues.
I have Jersey Woolies myself and the rabbit I sold her was a show quality Jersey Wooly so I know how they can get matted and she herself said most of them were in a severe molt and were probably starting to get a bit matted as they sometimes can when they`re molting(and couldn`t do much as a result of surgeries and her husband was taking care of the rabbits the best he could) but I don`t think they were so bad they needed to be shaved I don`t know for sure though. I can`t say I`ve actually been to a shelter since there`s none close by or come in contact with HRS or animal control(I live on a farm not like anyone`s gonna report us or anything I don`t think they could, much less would!).
LETS DO SOMETHING! ok sorry, but when it happened i heard a vague version of the HRS or whatever\'s side. But hearing the breeders side makes me angry. I feel like we can sit here and chat about it all we want but what good is that going to do? how can ARA\'s manage to \"gloss over\" our stories but we cant thiers? We should be able to, i dont see why not. what can i do to help?
The first thing breeders need to know is that unless they show up with a warrant in hand signed by a judge - you do not have to let them onto your property to look at anything. That is the place where you can do the most good for yourself right from the beginning. No matter how well cared for your rabbits are, do not let them look at anything. They show up at your door and make it sound like you have no choice but you do. Then get on the phone and get help - a lawyer, police officer - who ever you can find to help you fight for your rights because they are going to tromp all over you if you sit back and let them. If you have anything valuable to your herd, get them into carriers and get them off of the property. Don\'t wait because if they are determined to see your animals, you can bet they are getting the warrant to do so. If it wasn\'t that big of a deal to them after all and you never see them again, you at least took precautions to protect yourself and your rabbits. Once they have your rabbits or other animals in their posession, you most likely will never see them again. With big animals such as cows and horses, they may confiscate them but they have to care for them until they go to court and have them either declared the property of the rescue or they are returned to the owner. For some reason, when rabbits are taken, it is a big scramble to re-home them as quickly as possible. Even if that is wrong, you will still loose. I know some rabbit breeders who went in together to put a lawyer on retainer for their benefit should something happen to any of them. They live in a hot bed of ARA activity and they are doing all they can to prepare themselves for the inevitable. We all need to be prepared - just in case. Another thing we need to stop doing is putting our buisness cards and contact information out there for everyone to see. Now days, it just does not pay to let the general public know where you are and what you are doing. (My buisness cards now give my breeds and my e-mail address - nothing more). This includes cooped shows where these radicals have been known to walk around writing down whatever information they can from the coop cards. Alot of people help them out by putting their buisness cards on their cages so anyone who wants to buy knows where to go. I put nothing on my cages anymore except for the name of the rabbit, ear number and sr buck or sr doe ect.... As these people in MN are finding out, once you are in their system, it is very hard to pull yourself out. Keep THEM out of your life and your barns. It also sounds like the ARBA is finally starting to wake up and realize that it\'s members need help in fighting this madness going on around the country. There have been some mumblings about putting together committees to help fight legislation against breeders as well as committees to help it\'s members fight back when they are being individually targeted. Whether or not these committees amount to much remains to be seen but it is a start. Until then, fight for yourselves and fight hard. Keep them out!!
[I have Jersey Woolies myself and the rabbit I sold her was a show quality Jersey Wooly so I know how they can get matted and she herself said most of them were in a severe molt and were probably starting to get a bit matted as they sometimes can when they`re molting(and couldn`t do much as a result of surgeries and her husband was taking care of the rabbits the best he could) but I don`t think they were so bad they needed to be shaved I don`t know for sure though. I can`t say I`ve actually been to a shelter since there`s none close by or come in contact with HRS or animal control(I live on a farm not like anyone`s gonna report us or anything I don`t think they could, much less would!).
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Probably not. With the shelter their rabbit educator is a very good friend of mine(one of the good ones who is not entirely anti-breeder. Just pro-responsible breeding). So yeah I know of alot of stuff that happens there when they get animals in in bad shape. Esp when she has to foster them. With the angoras, the shelter was actually trying to work with the pet owner, and spaying them for them and stuff. But one day she decided to dump all 14 of her rabbits on them, and was really giving them a run around about it after they offered to help her. They recently just lost a bunny that was brought to them. he had urine burn so bad from being kept in an unsanitary cage, that it actually rubbed the hair right off his back end. It was actually chaffing through his skin, and very painful for him. They lost him from pneumonia from the stress from being moved around, and I\'m sure the abuse and neglect had something to do with it too.