April 17, 2022 • 42 mins
This week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show is our Easter Weekend Special! We will be celebrating the spring and honoring the #1 most popular springtime animal, the bunny! Co-Host Tay Shoemaker sits down with Caroline Charland, creator of The Bunny Bunch Rabbit Rescue and Boutique. Caroline teaches us why bunnies do not make good easter presents and about the care that is required to be a responsible Rabbit Parent. Don't miss this special, educational, holiday episode… check us out now!
Guest Links:
Website: http://bunnybunch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bunnybunchrabbitrescue?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BunnyBunchRabbitRescue
Shop: https://www.bunnybunchboutique.com/
Guest Links:
Website: http://bunnybunch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bunnybunchrabbitrescue?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BunnyBunchRabbitRescue
Shop: https://www.bunnybunchboutique.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type of
pet. Now here's your host,America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young.
Welcome back, pet Family. Iam your co host, a shoemaker and
(00:25):
this is the Pet Owner Diary Show. Happy Easter, passover, Astara and
Romadon to all of our listeners.This week's episode is our Easter slash Spring
celebration. Whatever you celebrate or don'tat this time of the year. Our
topic is a very important one.When you think of Easter. What are
(00:50):
some animals that come to your mind? Probably baby chicks, lambs, ducklings,
and of course the easter bunny.What you picture the easter bunny as
a man in the costume, manin a costume at the local mall,
or a cute little fluffy rabbit.Bunnies are the first spring animal that comes
to mind when we think about Easter. So the easter bunny is believed to
(01:15):
date back to the seventeen hundreds,when German immigrants came to America. They
brought over the traditions of a springcelebration, and well behaved children used to
craft nests for the rabbit to laycolorful eggs in. Eventually that evolved into
chocolate, candies and the gifts thatwe see today. However, the Easter
(01:38):
bunny came to be because of misterCottentale. Rabbits are often seen as great
presents for young children at this timeof year, but what happens when parents
realize how much work is required tokeep a bunny. Today we have the
honor of talking with Caroline Charlyne,the owner and founder of Bunny Bunch Rabbit
(02:00):
Rescue and Bunny Bunch Boutique. WelcomeCaroline, how are you doing today?
I'm very well. Thank you forhaving me, Yes, thank you for
being here. So we will getinto the critical topic of giving bunnies as
Easter presents, but first I wantto talk about the Bunny Bunch Rescue and
(02:21):
your background. So if it's notparent you're listeners from already, you are
from the UK and you moved tothe US, and you've done a bunch
of volunteer and fundraising work for rescuesand organizations in both countries. Pretty much
your whole life. Where does yourpassion for animals come from? Well,
(02:46):
it actually started as a young child. I can remember my grandmother reading me
books about animals and just loving them, and unfortunately there was some books where
things happened, bad things happen toanimals, and it would upset me.
I'd make her throw the book away. It started that young, around three
years old, and then from thereI just always loved animals. We always
(03:08):
had animals as a young child.Growing up, my parents loved animals,
and I started volunteering for the RSPCAit's the Royal Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
when I was about seven years old. Wow, that's amazing. In was
there anything you saw during, youknow, your long time of volunteering and
(03:30):
fundraising that made you realize that youreally wanted to dedicate your life to helping
animals. Well, I think itjust happened, actually, you know,
I started doing that, and thenyou know, as I grew up,
I just helped different rescues. Whenwe moved to the US, I started
volunteering with a cat rescue, andI just noticed that there was so much
(03:53):
more that could be done, andeverybody was so busy. So I started
running the cat rescue. I becamea director. Wow. And then I
noticed when I'd go to the shelters, because back then the shelters were very
high kill A lot still are,and there were rabbits and no one was
helping them, and so I decidedto start helping them. Wow. And
(04:13):
yeah, So I'm not going totell your whole story because I think everyone
who's interested go to the website thatis bunny bunch dot org if you want
to check that out and read thefull bio on the about page. But
yeah, it was there anything thatreally made you take the big step to
start a rescue and become a nonprofitorganization. Yes, because well, mainly
(04:40):
for the fact that back then,this was back in nineteen eighty four,
rabbits were in the back room inshelters being sold for five dollars for snake
food and people food. Oh geez. Yeah, no, that would definitely
make me sad. Yes, andyou kind of mentioned it before. Bunny
Bunch is a no kill rabbit shelter. For those who don't know the term
(05:02):
and what it means. What's thedifference between a shelter and a no kill
shelter. Okay, so what happens. City and county shelters get so overloaded
with so many animals they don't haveroom, and so they do have to
kill the animals to make room formore animals coming in, which is absolutely
awful. It's better now than itused to be, but it's still really
(05:27):
bad, and the problem is toomany people are breeding getting animals they shouldn't.
They end up in shelters a nokill shelter like we are, and
there are lots of no kill shelters. We do not kill, ever kill
an animal. We sometimes do haveto euthanize if we have a very sick
animal we take in that's been tothe vet and there's just nothing that can
(05:47):
be done because we would not wantthem to suffer. That happens very rarely,
but that's just the reality of doingrescue. However, being a no
kill shelter me that we turn awayanimals almost every single day because we live
in such a highly populated area.I get over a hundred requests a week
(06:09):
to take in rabbits and we haveto be able to properly care for them,
and so no kill is great,but the reality is the whole world
has to change for animals in orderfor animals not to be killed so much,
right, And I think with bunniestoo, you know, I've heard
that they have big litters and stufflike that. So you know a lot
(06:31):
of people will get them, maybeget two bunnies and not spay or new
to them, and then they're leftwith a bunch of little baby bunny rabbits
that they were not ready for.I get the calls every week. We
got two rabbits and we were toldthey were the same sex, and we
just had a litter of rabbits.You know, my rabbit just gave birth.
(06:51):
The first question I'll ask them iswas your male rabbit with your female
rabbit after she gave birth? Andthey're like, oh, we when we
noticed, we took him out.So I told them that's probably too late.
So expect another litter in thirty days, because once the female gives birth,
the male will mate to right backright after she's given birth. Often
(07:13):
and their gestations thirty days. Right, Yeah, so what lots of babies
that people don't really expect, Yes, for sure. And so there are
two Bunny Bunch locations, one inMontclair and the other in Orange County,
California. How did the other branchget started? Well, well, we
(07:35):
actually didn't have any locations for along time, and we would I would
do this out of my home.I would foster rabbits him We'd have lots
of foster homes all over and thenevery weekend we'd take the rabbits to different
locations where they'd allow us to doan adoption event. So, you know,
I worked back then, I workedin Corporate America. So all week
(07:55):
I was doing regular job in theevenings on the phones with all the people
not wanting their rabbits, and thenarranging adoption events at the weekends. It's
you know, it's seven days aweek all the time, apart from when
I was at work. So Ithought, you know, we need to
have a location and then we cando it seven days a week. Then,
so I opened up the Montclair locationfirst and that went really well,
(08:18):
and it was my goal to openthree locations, and so I opened up
the Fountain Valley, which is theOrange County location actually ten years ago in
June. And right now we've founda building in Los Angeles and we're going
to try to raise enough money toopen a third one. So then we
haven't one in each county in southernCalifornia. Oh that's amazing, congrats.
(08:39):
And so what is the experience likeor what like? How would you describe
how your shelter is If someone isgoing to walk in there, you know,
what would they see? What kindof services do you offer? They
love it. It's like paradise forpeople to come. So when you walk
in, Bunny Bunch Boutique has agreat, big store, well not great,
(09:03):
a big store with everything you needfor rabbits and most of the stuff
there a lot of it. Wemake ourselves. I garden and grow all
sorts of edible flowers and plants whichare very healthy treats for rabbits, guinea
pigs, chinchillas. And then everythingwe have there is rabbit approved, so
you don't have to worry that you'regoing to get something that's not good for
(09:24):
rabbits, because unfortunately, that's whathappens all the time the big box stores
and online has. I would sayover fifty percent of things are bad,
right, so they can feel comfortableknowing they're getting something good. And then
you can go into the store andthen you walk into what we call the
burrow which is a big giant roomwhich is full of rabbits in exercise pens,
(09:46):
with big litter boxes, full ofhay beds for Heidi houses toys choose
really enjoying life and rescued and we'llhave, you know, a very happy
ending. And then we also haveof tall cages of chinchillas and guinea pigs.
Amazing. That sounds great, Yeah, and I know that that having
(10:11):
that experience where you can go andsee them and just hang out with them
is so important for people who arewanting to adopt, So that's amazing,
yes. And unfortunately, due toCOVID, and then right off the COVID
there was a rabbit deadly rabbit viruscame to the US, so we had
to go strictly curbside, which we'vebeen for the last two years, and
now we're getting ready to open upagain this year this month. Well,
(10:37):
I hope that goes great for y'all. We do have to take a quick
break, but we'll be right backwith Caroline Charline from the Bunny Bunch Rabbit
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At navapets dot com, you canspoil your pet with goodness, treat your
pet like they treat you. Welcomeback, pet Family. We are back
(12:18):
with Carolyn Charline and we are talkingabout the Bunny Bunch Rescue for rabbits,
and we were kind of talking aboutthe shelters that they have, their locations
and Carolyn's background and so I wantto, you know, talk a little
bit more about the Bunny Bunch boutiquebecause I know the funds from that help
(12:43):
the rescue. And you guys havelots of items, like you said,
some are homemade. So what whatkind of items can people find in the
store? Okay, so they canget everything they need for rabbits, guinea
pigs and chinchillas. So for rabbits, rabbits need a big litter box.
We have great litter boxes. Wehave rabbits safe litter. We have fantastic
(13:07):
hay. A big problem for peopleis to find good hay. And I
should know we ship all over theUnited States too, so it's at our
stores. We've shipped oh for probablyabout over twenty years now, so we
have excellent hay. We have tokeep you know, about three hundred animals
happy with hay, and then wehave all very important is that rabbits are
(13:31):
fed healthy treats. A lot ofplaces put sugar and carbs so the rabbits
will eat them more, but they'rebad for them. So we have organic
flowers. I have those Caroline's cookies, all sorts of treats that are good
for rabbits and rabbits always tell youare you haven't given me a treat today
even though you have. So byfeeding flower and garden treats, you can
do that several times a day.We have fleece bedding. Oh, we
(13:56):
have toys chose. Rabbits teeth continuallygrow, so they need to chew on
things. We have willow baskets,We have tunnels. We have something called
the Carrot House, which I designedjust for rabbits. It's a two story
house. They can go up andtake a nap in all sorts of stuff,
and you can look on at it'sBunny Bunch boutique dot com. You
can see almost everything on there.We also have some gift items and jewelry
(14:22):
too. Amazing. Yeah, andjust to reiterate, that is bunny Bunch
dot org or bunny Bunch Boutique dotorg. And it's bunny Bunch Boutique dot
com for this perfect yeah. Yeah, And you guys can get to the
boutique through bunny Bunch dot org aswell. And there's also the content in
(14:43):
which I assume is a boarding servicefor rabbits. It is. Yeah,
we do boarding for rabbits, guineapigs and chinchillas. And I actually started
doing that out of my home backin the eighties because there was no one
that really knew how to care forrabbits. And it's very important because rabbits
can go into gi stasis where theirgi can slow down and stop, and
that's considered an emergency and if that'snot recognized right away, your rabbit will
(15:07):
be in trouble. So we knowall about rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas
and have been doing it for many, many years. Yeah, amazing.
Bunny Bunch is very trustworthy. Theyknow their stuff. And so people can
also donate veggies to the rescue,right, How how does one go about
(15:28):
doing that? Well, they canjust drop off veggies anytime were open seven
days a week. They can justdrop them off any time during curbside or
soon to be open hours. Somepeople out of state want to help and
they just send those through different servicesthat deliver them right to our door.
Amazing. And could you tell usthe addresses for the shelters, so if
(15:52):
people want to send anything, theycan. Yes, it's for the Fountain
Valley one. It's one oh fivethree four. It's better s B E
C H L E R. RiverAvenue and that's Fountain Valley California nine two
seven eight, and then Montclair isfour six zero one sweet one. It's
(16:14):
Brooks Street, Montclair nine one sevensixty three in California. Amazing. And
yeah, again, if you guyswant to go and look at that,
you can check out bunny Bunch dotorg and that will be there as well.
And so I also saw that peoplecan volunteer. What are some things
that y'all need volunteers for. Yeah, we're actually a volunteer organization. I'm
(16:37):
a volunteer for Bunny Bunch the wholetime I've done this as a volunteer.
It I'm not paid or anything todo. It's my passion. And we
have all sorts of needs such ashelp with social media fundraising. Fostering is
a big one. We always needfoster rabbits. Once we opened up our
buildings, the idea was we didn'tneed as many faster as well. What
(17:00):
happens is we fill the buildings upand then more rabbits need rest doing so
then we fill up as many fosterhomes as we can get. So fostering
is a big one. Transport,you know, we're having to take the
rabbits back and forth to the vetvolunteering in person at the locations. We
had just a handful of volunteers throughCOVID, but once we open again,
(17:22):
we'll be back doing that volunteer program, which people love to do that.
And then you know, there's there'sall sorts of things pretty much we can
find something for everybody. Amazing.And for the fosters, is there anything
specific that you require or you lookfor in a faster Yeah, there is.
We do do a foster application.We do like to speak with people
(17:45):
in person. Everything's not just doneonline. And so we do need a
safe indoor home with air conditioning,nothing dangerous. There's a lot of dogs
can be dangerous to rabbits. Itdoesn't really matter on the breed, it
just depends on the dog. Dothey do need a large area. We
have a no cage policy for rabbits. Rabbits should never be kept in cages.
(18:06):
To confine a rabbit. We dolarge exercise pens, all indoors.
We provide all of the supplies forthe foster home, and we do need
the foster home to be able tobring the rabbit two our adoption center and
when we do find a home forthem right there makes a lot of sense.
And you guys don't just take inbunnies. You know, you've mentioned
(18:27):
a couple a couple of animals,but what are some other critters that y'all
take in to the rescue. Themain three, of course are the rabbits,
and then we take in chinchillas,a lot of chinchillas. Unfortunately,
it's really bad for chinchillas and alot of guinea pigs. It's really bad
for guinea pigs too. People gotthem as COVID pets, which is ridiculous
(18:48):
when everything was closed down. Thesepeople should never have had animals in the
first place. And then they gotthem from you know, stores, they
bought them, and then when everythingopened up from COVID, they don't want
them anymore. And they're being dumpless often, right, just like you
know cats and other animals, Andso we are jam packed. We're looking
for fosterest for guinea pigs and chinchillais too. Yeah, and I mean
(19:10):
a lot of the reason why youknow, people you know, typically I
know with my with my frog rescue, people will get these animals thinking they're
cute, and then they'll realize howmuch work they are. And I and
I can confidently say bunnies are probablyway more, way more work than frogs.
Yeah, it's true. And unfortunately, one of the worst things that
(19:32):
happens is that they're neglected and oftendie from neglect or they end up at
the kill shelters, or they cometo the rescues. And a lot of
times I take in rabbits that Idon't know if they're even going to make
it or not. That's how badthey can be because people they just don't
care for them a lot of thetimes. Ray And yeah, I understand
that too. You know, peoplepeople give us a little bit of flag
(19:56):
when we're when we're unable to sayof, um, the animals that we
take in, because we'd take insuch you know, sick animals sometimes and
um, you know, like peopledon't get to see that other side.
Um. And every rescue, everyrescue deals with that, um, no
matter no matter what animal that they'retaking in. Yeah, that's true.
(20:19):
And it's sad because you know,the people normally that complain and upset about
things often are the people that arecausing them exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
now I've noticed that too. Yeahsad. Yeah, And we we will
get we'll get into the kind ofmeat and potatoes of our topic today,
(20:45):
and we're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back with Caroline
Charlene from the Bunny Bunch of RabbitRescue. We all know that a dog
(21:07):
is man's best friend, won't Whystop there? We think that all pets
make our lives a little easier.Whether it's a cat, gecko, or
even a horse. We want tolearn what makes your pets so special to
you. Maybe they have an eccentricpersonality or even give good cuddles. Whatever
it is, we want to hearabout it. After all, our pets
deserve a moment in the spotlight.Why not share an interesting story about your
(21:30):
pet with our host, pet coachJanelle Young. No matter how big or
small, we'd love to hear fromyou on the Pet Owner Diary Show.
We're looking for the next pet celebritysuperstar or that unique animal story for TV
and radio. If you believe yourpet has the it factor, then call
our pet line at four oh sevennine oh six fifty seven twelve or email
(21:51):
us at pet Owner Diary at gmaildot com. The possibilities are endless.
Maybe you and your pet will beour next featured weekly guest on TV or
radio. Let's give our pets theattention they deserve. Welcome back, Pet
(22:17):
Family. We are here with CarolineCharline of the Bunny Bunch Rescue and boutique
and also the Cotton Tail in wherethey help rabbits, tinchillas and guinea pigs.
This is our Easter special and wehave a pretty important topic that is
(22:38):
very very topical for an Easter special. Throughout April, many rabbit influencers and
rescues have been posting PSAs about notbuying or giving bunnies as presents to children
for Easter, and the main questionI see in the comments is why,
what's so bad about that? Well, Caroline is here to tell us in
(23:00):
detail why this is such an importantcause. In Caroline, every story is
different, but typically when you geta call for an intake who was given
as a gift, what led theowners to contacting you? Well, the
number one reason is they thought thatthey could give their child a rabbit to
(23:22):
care for. And rabbits can livetwelve to fourteen years, so it's a
big commitment. Excuse me, theycan't live in a cage, and so
people often are buying these rabbits frompet shops in California it's illegal to sell
rabbits, but a lot of statesit's still legal. And then swat meats
are full of them, street vendors, there's just all sorts of places,
(23:47):
lots of breeders, and so thesepeople, they're just in it for the
money. So East is a bigmoneymaker. So all they want to do
is get people to buy these animals. When all these rabbits, when the
people get the rabbits are often ina tiny cage, which is very cruel,
ridiculous for any type of animal tolive in. They get them home
and all of a sudden, guesswhat, there's rabbit poop all in the
(24:08):
cage and the child, you know, sweet fluffy, cute bunny. Yes,
they're great to look at, butcaring for them is a different story.
There are a lot of work.I consider them more work than cats
and dogs. Honestly, they havea long lifespan, which is fantastic for
people that really understand and want tocare for a rabbit. They do use
(24:30):
a litter box once they're spayed onutude. However, rabbits that people buy
at East to time and not spayedon utude. When a rabbit is not
spayed on YouTube. They generally won'tuse a litter box because they're marking their
territory by pooping. They can sprayurine a lot of these rabbits of babies
many way too young to even betaken away from their mother, and they
(24:52):
often die within a few days areold enough become hormonal at around four months,
which is when all of a sudden, when the spraying starts. If
they're kept in a small cage,the rabbit becomes very possessive of that cage.
When the child opens the door,the rabbit's gonna grunt and box and
can even bite. Because they're keepingthe rabbit in a tiny area, the
(25:15):
rabbits scared and feels like it hasto protect itself. So it's just honestly
terrible. Rabbits should never live ina cage, like I had said earlier,
they need to be in a largeexercise pen setup. But best is
free roam in a home. Andwhen people do this, they're just anew
to rabbits and they don't know anything. Guess what the rabbit does. It
(25:36):
goes behind the tea and choose everysingle cord back there. Guess what the
dad then says or the mum,Okay, that's it. The rabbit's gone
right. Rabbits are big chewers,and the reason is their teeth continually grow,
and so you have to rabbit proofyour home for it to be first
safe of the rabbit and then secondso you don't have your cords and coffee
(25:56):
tables and carpet dug up and baseboardschewed those areas that rabbits will do.
And when people adopt from us,I tell them, you know, if
you rent, you can probably planon not getting your deposit back because even
though you can rabbit proof, rabbitsare normally going to do something right,
you know. But honestly it's theyou know, the parents getting them for
(26:18):
the children, thinking the children cancare for them. Children are busy,
children are children. I mean peoplecall us at east time, I want
a rabbit for my two year oldor my four year old said they want
a rabbit. I mean, youknow, it's just ridiculous. Yeah,
it's an ongoing and it's just allthese awful places, a lot of them
selling rabbits illegally. Yeah, andyou know, I want to kind of
(26:41):
go into the swat meats. Iknow, we usually see, you know,
puppies and kittens being sold at swatmeats and flea markets. Those typically
come from places like puppy mills,and I assume, you know, rabbits
kind of have the same set up. Well here in California, it's illegal
to sell cats, dogs, rabbits, other animals too at swat meats,
(27:07):
pet shops, different places like that, unless they have come from a rescue
or a shelter. So, forinstance, a rescue group can go to
a pet shop and hold an eventto adopt rabbits out. That law changed
several years ago in California. However, all the people doing that just found
a different way to do it,right, they do still sell them.
I don't really see cats and dogs, and I haven't for a long time,
(27:30):
but I do see all sorts ofother animals, lots of birds,
fish, tortoises, turtles, obviously, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas,
hamsters, rats. I mean,I could go on and so, and
it's awful. They're in disgusting conditions, and that's something we do. We
actually go undercover and get the informationto report them. But it still carries
(27:52):
on. So it's you know,animal control more laws have to change to
really put an end. It's theonly thing that's going to stop all of
this, right, Yeah, andI know I'm not too sure about the
laws here in Texas, but Ihave seen, you know, rabbits being
sold. Birds, definitely a lotof chickens and ducklings. I've definitely seen
(28:14):
those sold at flea markets before.And yeah, they're not They're typically not
kept in the best conditions. Andyou know, typically when you hear stories
of you know, puppies or bunniesor you know, anyone really being sold
at swap meats and flea markets,it's because you know, they have them
in tiny cages, kids find them, or an adult finds them and feel
(28:38):
bad, or you know, getcaught up in the puppy dog eyes.
Do you think there's similar motives?You know, when bunnies are being sold,
kind of present them as you know, super cute, super easy,
you should just buy one. Soall the time I hear it, and
unfortunately it's not just Easta here wereso heavily populated. It's all yea long,
(29:00):
but yes, that's it. Yousee this poor rabbit in these lots
of rabbits, I mean they literallyhave hundreds of them at the SMA,
and you're just looking at them.They're sitting in their own poop and pee,
and they'll be you know. SometimesI've even seen live rabbits with a
dead rabbit in the cage. Peopleselling them don't even know, you know,
(29:21):
and they'll they'll be like twenty rabbitsin a tiny, tiny cage,
just jammed in on top of eachother. I mean, the conditions are
just unbelievably awful. And yes,people want to rescue the rabbit. Unfortunately,
what happens is by giving these peoplemoney, it can they continue on.
But it's a catch twenty two.And the babies, they have.
One big thing they do is theyhave the tiny babies. Rabbits need to
(29:45):
stay with their mother normally till eightweeks old, but they start open,
they open their eyes around twelve weeksand then start nibbling on hay. And
so people will see these tiny babieseating hey, thinking they're weaned and they're
not right, you know, andso these people they take them away from
their mother, and a lot ofpeople that don't know rabbits always want a
(30:06):
small rabbit, the smaller because theythink their child can handle them. Easia
and they can live in a smallcage. Neither are true. And unfortunately
they even tell them they've been injectedwith something to keep them small. They
make up all these stories, sopeople think this rabbit's going to stay like
this. People call me all thetime the rabbit grew. They told me
it was going to stay small.And they'll send me a photo of a
(30:29):
rabbit in a cage and the rabbitcan't even stretch out in the cage.
They kept it in the cage.So these are the awful, horrible things
that happen, and this is whyit has to change, right And you
know, instead of buying a rabbit, you can also report the seller.
How do you go about reporting them? And what is the organization you can
(30:55):
call or email to report them?Great question. So that's what I'm actually
going to be doing Sundays undercover atthese swap meets. And what I do
is you need to get as manyphotos or video as much as you can.
It's best to have an undercover camerabecause they know if they see you
taking photos with your phone, they'regoing to start yelling at you. The
(31:15):
people selling. You need to getthe space number. That's really important.
You have to have the full addressof the swat meat flea market whatever it
is. And then basically there's differentlaws in different states, but you can
report animal abuse for no water,no food, no shade, filthy conditions
(31:36):
and being ill, medical conditions andunfortunately there's great animal controls and there's awful
animal controls. But no matter what, even if you're working with an animal
control that really doesn't do a lot, if you keep on about it,
to report it, follow up thenext day, find out when they went
out. That's not the end ofit, though. Unfortunately they'll go out
(31:57):
and sometimes they're just told to,you know, have better conditions. Now
this is where it's being If it'snot legal, obviously then that's good because
it should be stopped. But whenit's legal, they can you know,
let's say a pet shop, aswap me, they'll tell them to have
better conditions. So they may nevergo back to check. So it's up
to the person doing this going outthere, checking again, getting more photos,
(32:21):
reporting it again. You have tobe persistent and carry on. It's
not a one time thing. It'sgreat and it does work because I've done
it, and anyone that needs helpwith any suggestions you know, they can
email me, call me, ortext me, because this is one of
the big things we're trying to getpeople to do, especially this weekend,
but actually all year long. Right. Yeah, and guys again, if
(32:44):
you want that number or email orto contact it is funny Bunch dot org.
There's everything there. We're going totake a quick break and we'll be
right back with Caroline Charline from FunnyBunch Rabbit Rescue at Nava Pets. We
(33:10):
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(34:00):
peanut butter, and salmon. What'snot to love At nabopets dot com.
You can spoil your pet with goodness, treat your pet like they treat
you. Welcome back pet Family.We are here with Caroline Charline from the
(34:23):
Bunny Bunch Rabbit Rescue and we weretalking about finding rabbits at swat meats and
flea markets and how you can reportunjust conditions for the animals at swat meats.
Now I want to get into someof the rabbit care because we hear
(34:44):
stories like this all the time inthe animal world. A lot of them
begin with people who think, oh, well, I won't do that,
I'm different or my kids are different, but don't do any research and act
on impulse. I want to talkabout the required care for rabbits, so
hopefully for the people who are listeningand may still be mulling over the thought
(35:06):
of getting their child a rabbit asa present, may rethink or at least
put some effort into researching and preparingfor the responsibility of owning a rabbit.
First things first, Rabbits are justlike dogs and cats. You can't keep
them in a tiny cage all day. Carolyn, what is proper housing for
the average rabbit. Well, theyactually can't be in a cage at all.
(35:30):
There's there are no cages that arebig enough for them. So I
tell people, you know, ifyou went to if you wanted a cat
or a dog, and brought acat or dog at home, you wouldn't
put a cat or dog in acage. I know, great train which
is different, however, so rabbit, the best thing for the rabbit is
to be free roam in a rabbitproofed home. Rabbits love to run around.
(35:52):
They do. They run and dosomething called a binkie, which is
the cutest thing you've ever seen.They jump up and twist in the air.
That's a happy rabbit. And soprovide hiding a very large area your
home, half of your home.A room in your home is a lot
better than confining a rabbit. However, there are times when you might have
to confine a rabbit, and somepeople, for whatever reason, can't do
(36:14):
free room, in which case wesuggest an exercise pen, which is like
a puppy pen. The metal onesthe best They generally come as four foot
by four foot meaning four foot white, you know, four foot square on
the floor, which really isn't enoughroom, So putting two of those together
would be best. The more roomyou have, the bigger you can make
(36:35):
it, the better. You haveto have enough room for a big litter
box, a big hide house,room for them to be able to run
around and do some binking even whenthey're in the pen. And then when
they are in a pen like that, they still have to come out for
about oh, you know, thesix hours a day. The more time
the better, right, Yeah,And what are some things that you have
(36:55):
to do to rabbit prove your home? Well, electric chords are a big
one. For some reason, theyjust find them, go straight to them
and shoot straight through them. Soyour phone cord, your light chords.
And they're very smart. Rabbits arevery intelligent and when they want to do
something, they normally find a way. So you have to find a way
that they can't do that. Andthere's all sorts of rabbit proofing ideas on
(37:20):
YouTube, and you'll find online thereare cord covers for electric chords. If
you have a lot of chords.This is what I tell people behind the
TV. You know, get abig plastic box, put all the chords
in the box, cut a littleslit, and so you only have from
the box to the wall where youplug in shown and then you cover those
(37:42):
with metal cord covers. But there'sall sorts of stuff. Something else very
important are plants, because a lotof plants are poisonous and to rabbits.
So if you do have plants,you've got to make sure they're safe and
you definitely don't want any poisonous plantsin the house. And then baseboards are
a big one. Rabbits love tochew baseboards and so basically for that,
you can get a unfinished baseboard,tack it onto your baseboard, and so
(38:07):
if they chew that, it's okay, and if you move out, you
take it off and your baseboards underneathare okay. Wow. Yeah, a
lot of thinking around things. Ilike that. And so after rabbit proving
and getting all they need, whyis the average cost for setting all of
this up? You know, itdepends on what you want to do.
(38:30):
I just yesterday had someone that adopteda rabbit and they got everything from Buddy
Bunch of boutique and our prices area lot lower than most places. Actually,
we had two people and one personspent around four hundred dollars. The
other person spent around two hundred dollarsand what they both got was perfectly good
for the rabbits they adopted. Andso it just depends on how what you
(38:52):
want to do. You know,some people go all out and get everything
you can. Some people get thenecessities like the exercise pen, the litter
box, the hey food pellets,some choo, some treats, a carrier,
you need to have a hard carrier, not a soft one, they're
not safe. Top opening is best. And then you know, some toys
(39:14):
and chews, so you can justget the necessities, and then you can
always add because you know they're goingto chew through a lot of this stuff
and you're going to be continually replacingit. Right, perfect, thank you.
So what would you tell someone whohas heard all of this and is
still convinced a rabbit as a goodEaster present for their child, Well,
(39:35):
if the parents, see, here'sthe thing we do adopt to families,
and so how we look at everythingis if the parents are the ones that
want the rabbit, have done alot of work researching, and I tell
people take weeks even a month todo the research because you're going to learn
so much. You know, thisis for year round, you know,
and you've talked to a rescue,for sure, talk to a rescue because
(39:59):
they'll tell you the true all thegood things. That's the first thing I
tell people. We're going to tellyou all the good things and all the
bad things because we want them tomake the right choice. And a lot
of people change their mind and saythank you for telling us that we're not
going to do it. So alot of people you can't convince, no
matter why. People hang up onme every day and especially this week when
I'm telling them all this infot theyjust click hang up. And so you
(40:21):
know, there are people that willinsist they're going to get a rabbit.
And what I try to do withthose people, even though I can tell
it's not going to work out andthey're going to be calling me in a
few weeks, I try to givethem as much information as I can to
help that rabbit so they possibly cando everything correctly. And that's basically the
extent of it, because you know, you're just some people are going to
(40:42):
do what they do, and youcan talk till you're blue in the face
and they're not going to listen.But thank goodness, a lot of people
listen. But one big thing isI hope you like a lot of poop
in the house. I hope youlike a lot of hair, because rabbits
shared a lot need grooming. Ihope you don't mind hail over your house.
I mean, it's not really allover your house. It's in the
box, but they jump out ifthe child's caring for them, they drop
hay everywhere. And I hope youlike a lot of work. Right.
(41:07):
Thanks for the people that don't wantto listen, right, Thank you so
much Caroline for coming on the show. It's been very educational and wonderful to
have you today. Please let everyoneknow where they can find Bunny Bunch Rescue
at bunny Bunch dot Org is ourwebsite and we have addresses on there.
(41:28):
We're in southern California in Fountain Valleyand Montclair, and like I said,
we're hoping to open up Los Angeleswith fundraising right now for that. And
then Bunny Bunch Boutique dot com isthe store where we sell everything, and
a portion from every single sale goesto Bunny Bunch to help save lives.
Amazing. Oh, thank you somuch again, Caroline. This has been
(41:50):
the pet Owner Diary show. Myname is Tatiemaker and we'll see you back
here next week, same time,same place. Goodbye. Thank you for
joining us on Pet Owner Diary.Make sure to visit our website pet Ownerdiary
dot com, where you can signup for our newsletter, view show highlights,
and download each episode via SoundCloud.Make sure to subscribe to the show
(42:13):
on your favorite podcast app too,so you and your pet never miss an
episode Pet Family. If you likewhat you hear, please share on your
social media and tell a friend totune in on behalf of America's Pet Owner
Coach, Janelle Young. We wishyou love, peace and harmony with your
pet. We'll catch you in thenext episode.
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type of
pet. Now here's your host,America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young.
Welcome back, pet Family. Iam your co host, a shoemaker and
(00:25):
this is the Pet Owner Diary Show. Happy Easter, passover, Astara and
Romadon to all of our listeners.This week's episode is our Easter slash Spring
celebration. Whatever you celebrate or don'tat this time of the year. Our
topic is a very important one.When you think of Easter. What are
(00:50):
some animals that come to your mind? Probably baby chicks, lambs, ducklings,
and of course the easter bunny.What you picture the easter bunny as
a man in the costume, manin a costume at the local mall,
or a cute little fluffy rabbit.Bunnies are the first spring animal that comes
to mind when we think about Easter. So the easter bunny is believed to
(01:15):
date back to the seventeen hundreds,when German immigrants came to America. They
brought over the traditions of a springcelebration, and well behaved children used to
craft nests for the rabbit to laycolorful eggs in. Eventually that evolved into
chocolate, candies and the gifts thatwe see today. However, the Easter
(01:38):
bunny came to be because of misterCottentale. Rabbits are often seen as great
presents for young children at this timeof year, but what happens when parents
realize how much work is required tokeep a bunny. Today we have the
honor of talking with Caroline Charlyne,the owner and founder of Bunny Bunch Rabbit
(02:00):
Rescue and Bunny Bunch Boutique. WelcomeCaroline, how are you doing today?
I'm very well. Thank you forhaving me, Yes, thank you for
being here. So we will getinto the critical topic of giving bunnies as
Easter presents, but first I wantto talk about the Bunny Bunch Rescue and
(02:21):
your background. So if it's notparent you're listeners from already, you are
from the UK and you moved tothe US, and you've done a bunch
of volunteer and fundraising work for rescuesand organizations in both countries. Pretty much
your whole life. Where does yourpassion for animals come from? Well,
(02:46):
it actually started as a young child. I can remember my grandmother reading me
books about animals and just loving them, and unfortunately there was some books where
things happened, bad things happen toanimals, and it would upset me.
I'd make her throw the book away. It started that young, around three
years old, and then from thereI just always loved animals. We always
(03:08):
had animals as a young child.Growing up, my parents loved animals,
and I started volunteering for the RSPCAit's the Royal Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
when I was about seven years old. Wow, that's amazing. In was
there anything you saw during, youknow, your long time of volunteering and
(03:30):
fundraising that made you realize that youreally wanted to dedicate your life to helping
animals. Well, I think itjust happened, actually, you know,
I started doing that, and thenyou know, as I grew up,
I just helped different rescues. Whenwe moved to the US, I started
volunteering with a cat rescue, andI just noticed that there was so much
(03:53):
more that could be done, andeverybody was so busy. So I started
running the cat rescue. I becamea director. Wow. And then I
noticed when I'd go to the shelters, because back then the shelters were very
high kill A lot still are,and there were rabbits and no one was
helping them, and so I decidedto start helping them. Wow. And
(04:13):
yeah, So I'm not going totell your whole story because I think everyone
who's interested go to the website thatis bunny bunch dot org if you want
to check that out and read thefull bio on the about page. But
yeah, it was there anything thatreally made you take the big step to
start a rescue and become a nonprofitorganization. Yes, because well, mainly
(04:40):
for the fact that back then,this was back in nineteen eighty four,
rabbits were in the back room inshelters being sold for five dollars for snake
food and people food. Oh geez. Yeah, no, that would definitely
make me sad. Yes, andyou kind of mentioned it before. Bunny
Bunch is a no kill rabbit shelter. For those who don't know the term
(05:02):
and what it means. What's thedifference between a shelter and a no kill
shelter. Okay, so what happens. City and county shelters get so overloaded
with so many animals they don't haveroom, and so they do have to
kill the animals to make room formore animals coming in, which is absolutely
awful. It's better now than itused to be, but it's still really
(05:27):
bad, and the problem is toomany people are breeding getting animals they shouldn't.
They end up in shelters a nokill shelter like we are, and
there are lots of no kill shelters. We do not kill, ever kill
an animal. We sometimes do haveto euthanize if we have a very sick
animal we take in that's been tothe vet and there's just nothing that can
(05:47):
be done because we would not wantthem to suffer. That happens very rarely,
but that's just the reality of doingrescue. However, being a no
kill shelter me that we turn awayanimals almost every single day because we live
in such a highly populated area.I get over a hundred requests a week
(06:09):
to take in rabbits and we haveto be able to properly care for them,
and so no kill is great,but the reality is the whole world
has to change for animals in orderfor animals not to be killed so much,
right, And I think with bunniestoo, you know, I've heard
that they have big litters and stufflike that. So you know a lot
(06:31):
of people will get them, maybeget two bunnies and not spay or new
to them, and then they're leftwith a bunch of little baby bunny rabbits
that they were not ready for.I get the calls every week. We
got two rabbits and we were toldthey were the same sex, and we
just had a litter of rabbits.You know, my rabbit just gave birth.
(06:51):
The first question I'll ask them iswas your male rabbit with your female
rabbit after she gave birth? Andthey're like, oh, we when we
noticed, we took him out.So I told them that's probably too late.
So expect another litter in thirty days, because once the female gives birth,
the male will mate to right backright after she's given birth. Often
(07:13):
and their gestations thirty days. Right, Yeah, so what lots of babies
that people don't really expect, Yes, for sure. And so there are
two Bunny Bunch locations, one inMontclair and the other in Orange County,
California. How did the other branchget started? Well, well, we
(07:35):
actually didn't have any locations for along time, and we would I would
do this out of my home.I would foster rabbits him We'd have lots
of foster homes all over and thenevery weekend we'd take the rabbits to different
locations where they'd allow us to doan adoption event. So, you know,
I worked back then, I workedin Corporate America. So all week
(07:55):
I was doing regular job in theevenings on the phones with all the people
not wanting their rabbits, and thenarranging adoption events at the weekends. It's
you know, it's seven days aweek all the time, apart from when
I was at work. So Ithought, you know, we need to
have a location and then we cando it seven days a week. Then,
so I opened up the Montclair locationfirst and that went really well,
(08:18):
and it was my goal to openthree locations, and so I opened up
the Fountain Valley, which is theOrange County location actually ten years ago in
June. And right now we've founda building in Los Angeles and we're going
to try to raise enough money toopen a third one. So then we
haven't one in each county in southernCalifornia. Oh that's amazing, congrats.
(08:39):
And so what is the experience likeor what like? How would you describe
how your shelter is If someone isgoing to walk in there, you know,
what would they see? What kindof services do you offer? They
love it. It's like paradise forpeople to come. So when you walk
in, Bunny Bunch Boutique has agreat, big store, well not great,
(09:03):
a big store with everything you needfor rabbits and most of the stuff
there a lot of it. Wemake ourselves. I garden and grow all
sorts of edible flowers and plants whichare very healthy treats for rabbits, guinea
pigs, chinchillas. And then everythingwe have there is rabbit approved, so
you don't have to worry that you'regoing to get something that's not good for
(09:24):
rabbits, because unfortunately, that's whathappens all the time the big box stores
and online has. I would sayover fifty percent of things are bad,
right, so they can feel comfortableknowing they're getting something good. And then
you can go into the store andthen you walk into what we call the
burrow which is a big giant roomwhich is full of rabbits in exercise pens,
(09:46):
with big litter boxes, full ofhay beds for Heidi houses toys choose
really enjoying life and rescued and we'llhave, you know, a very happy
ending. And then we also haveof tall cages of chinchillas and guinea pigs.
Amazing. That sounds great, Yeah, and I know that that having
(10:11):
that experience where you can go andsee them and just hang out with them
is so important for people who arewanting to adopt, So that's amazing,
yes. And unfortunately, due toCOVID, and then right off the COVID
there was a rabbit deadly rabbit viruscame to the US, so we had
to go strictly curbside, which we'vebeen for the last two years, and
now we're getting ready to open upagain this year this month. Well,
(10:37):
I hope that goes great for y'all. We do have to take a quick
break, but we'll be right backwith Caroline Charline from the Bunny Bunch Rabbit
Rescue at Nava Pets. We knowhow important your furry companions are, so
(11:03):
we want to help keep them happyand healthy. Our organic hemp products are
especially formulated to enhance the well beingof your beloved pet. But don't worry.
Our hemp supplements don't contain any ofthe psychedelic stuff, so your animal
will receive all the health benefits andstill be the pet you know and love.
Your furry friend is sure to enjoythe organic pet Hemp Tincture, which
(11:26):
infuses anti inflammatory plant properties and omegafattyacids, providing for a more mobile and
energetic pet, while also assisting withany chronic pain or medical conditions your pet
may be experiencing. Our hemp productsalso give a natural calming effect, perfect
for the continuous barkers or those stressedout cats. We also offer a range
(11:48):
of flavors including bacon, peanut butter, and salmon. What's not to love
At navapets dot com, you canspoil your pet with goodness, treat your
pet like they treat you. Welcomeback, pet Family. We are back
(12:18):
with Carolyn Charline and we are talkingabout the Bunny Bunch Rescue for rabbits,
and we were kind of talking aboutthe shelters that they have, their locations
and Carolyn's background and so I wantto, you know, talk a little
bit more about the Bunny Bunch boutiquebecause I know the funds from that help
(12:43):
the rescue. And you guys havelots of items, like you said,
some are homemade. So what whatkind of items can people find in the
store? Okay, so they canget everything they need for rabbits, guinea
pigs and chinchillas. So for rabbits, rabbits need a big litter box.
We have great litter boxes. Wehave rabbits safe litter. We have fantastic
(13:07):
hay. A big problem for peopleis to find good hay. And I
should know we ship all over theUnited States too, so it's at our
stores. We've shipped oh for probablyabout over twenty years now, so we
have excellent hay. We have tokeep you know, about three hundred animals
happy with hay, and then wehave all very important is that rabbits are
(13:31):
fed healthy treats. A lot ofplaces put sugar and carbs so the rabbits
will eat them more, but they'rebad for them. So we have organic
flowers. I have those Caroline's cookies, all sorts of treats that are good
for rabbits and rabbits always tell youare you haven't given me a treat today
even though you have. So byfeeding flower and garden treats, you can
do that several times a day.We have fleece bedding. Oh, we
(13:56):
have toys chose. Rabbits teeth continuallygrow, so they need to chew on
things. We have willow baskets,We have tunnels. We have something called
the Carrot House, which I designedjust for rabbits. It's a two story
house. They can go up andtake a nap in all sorts of stuff,
and you can look on at it'sBunny Bunch boutique dot com. You
can see almost everything on there.We also have some gift items and jewelry
(14:22):
too. Amazing. Yeah, andjust to reiterate, that is bunny Bunch
dot org or bunny Bunch Boutique dotorg. And it's bunny Bunch Boutique dot
com for this perfect yeah. Yeah, And you guys can get to the
boutique through bunny Bunch dot org aswell. And there's also the content in
(14:43):
which I assume is a boarding servicefor rabbits. It is. Yeah,
we do boarding for rabbits, guineapigs and chinchillas. And I actually started
doing that out of my home backin the eighties because there was no one
that really knew how to care forrabbits. And it's very important because rabbits
can go into gi stasis where theirgi can slow down and stop, and
that's considered an emergency and if that'snot recognized right away, your rabbit will
(15:07):
be in trouble. So we knowall about rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas
and have been doing it for many, many years. Yeah, amazing.
Bunny Bunch is very trustworthy. Theyknow their stuff. And so people can
also donate veggies to the rescue,right, How how does one go about
(15:28):
doing that? Well, they canjust drop off veggies anytime were open seven
days a week. They can justdrop them off any time during curbside or
soon to be open hours. Somepeople out of state want to help and
they just send those through different servicesthat deliver them right to our door.
Amazing. And could you tell usthe addresses for the shelters, so if
(15:52):
people want to send anything, theycan. Yes, it's for the Fountain
Valley one. It's one oh fivethree four. It's better s B E
C H L E R. RiverAvenue and that's Fountain Valley California nine two
seven eight, and then Montclair isfour six zero one sweet one. It's
(16:14):
Brooks Street, Montclair nine one sevensixty three in California. Amazing. And
yeah, again, if you guyswant to go and look at that,
you can check out bunny Bunch dotorg and that will be there as well.
And so I also saw that peoplecan volunteer. What are some things
that y'all need volunteers for. Yeah, we're actually a volunteer organization. I'm
(16:37):
a volunteer for Bunny Bunch the wholetime I've done this as a volunteer.
It I'm not paid or anything todo. It's my passion. And we
have all sorts of needs such ashelp with social media fundraising. Fostering is
a big one. We always needfoster rabbits. Once we opened up our
buildings, the idea was we didn'tneed as many faster as well. What
(17:00):
happens is we fill the buildings upand then more rabbits need rest doing so
then we fill up as many fosterhomes as we can get. So fostering
is a big one. Transport,you know, we're having to take the
rabbits back and forth to the vetvolunteering in person at the locations. We
had just a handful of volunteers throughCOVID, but once we open again,
(17:22):
we'll be back doing that volunteer program, which people love to do that.
And then you know, there's there'sall sorts of things pretty much we can
find something for everybody. Amazing.And for the fosters, is there anything
specific that you require or you lookfor in a faster Yeah, there is.
We do do a foster application.We do like to speak with people
(17:45):
in person. Everything's not just doneonline. And so we do need a
safe indoor home with air conditioning,nothing dangerous. There's a lot of dogs
can be dangerous to rabbits. Itdoesn't really matter on the breed, it
just depends on the dog. Dothey do need a large area. We
have a no cage policy for rabbits. Rabbits should never be kept in cages.
(18:06):
To confine a rabbit. We dolarge exercise pens, all indoors.
We provide all of the supplies forthe foster home, and we do need
the foster home to be able tobring the rabbit two our adoption center and
when we do find a home forthem right there makes a lot of sense.
And you guys don't just take inbunnies. You know, you've mentioned
(18:27):
a couple a couple of animals,but what are some other critters that y'all
take in to the rescue. Themain three, of course are the rabbits,
and then we take in chinchillas,a lot of chinchillas. Unfortunately,
it's really bad for chinchillas and alot of guinea pigs. It's really bad
for guinea pigs too. People gotthem as COVID pets, which is ridiculous
(18:48):
when everything was closed down. Thesepeople should never have had animals in the
first place. And then they gotthem from you know, stores, they
bought them, and then when everythingopened up from COVID, they don't want
them anymore. And they're being dumpless often, right, just like you
know cats and other animals, Andso we are jam packed. We're looking
for fosterest for guinea pigs and chinchillais too. Yeah, and I mean
(19:10):
a lot of the reason why youknow, people you know, typically I
know with my with my frog rescue, people will get these animals thinking they're
cute, and then they'll realize howmuch work they are. And I and
I can confidently say bunnies are probablyway more, way more work than frogs.
Yeah, it's true. And unfortunately, one of the worst things that
(19:32):
happens is that they're neglected and oftendie from neglect or they end up at
the kill shelters, or they cometo the rescues. And a lot of
times I take in rabbits that Idon't know if they're even going to make
it or not. That's how badthey can be because people they just don't
care for them a lot of thetimes. Ray And yeah, I understand
that too. You know, peoplepeople give us a little bit of flag
(19:56):
when we're when we're unable to sayof, um, the animals that we
take in, because we'd take insuch you know, sick animals sometimes and
um, you know, like peopledon't get to see that other side.
Um. And every rescue, everyrescue deals with that, um, no
matter no matter what animal that they'retaking in. Yeah, that's true.
(20:19):
And it's sad because you know,the people normally that complain and upset about
things often are the people that arecausing them exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
now I've noticed that too. Yeahsad. Yeah, And we we will
get we'll get into the kind ofmeat and potatoes of our topic today,
(20:45):
and we're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back with Caroline
Charlene from the Bunny Bunch of RabbitRescue. We all know that a dog
(21:07):
is man's best friend, won't Whystop there? We think that all pets
make our lives a little easier.Whether it's a cat, gecko, or
even a horse. We want tolearn what makes your pets so special to
you. Maybe they have an eccentricpersonality or even give good cuddles. Whatever
it is, we want to hearabout it. After all, our pets
deserve a moment in the spotlight.Why not share an interesting story about your
(21:30):
pet with our host, pet coachJanelle Young. No matter how big or
small, we'd love to hear fromyou on the Pet Owner Diary Show.
We're looking for the next pet celebritysuperstar or that unique animal story for TV
and radio. If you believe yourpet has the it factor, then call
our pet line at four oh sevennine oh six fifty seven twelve or email
(21:51):
us at pet Owner Diary at gmaildot com. The possibilities are endless.
Maybe you and your pet will beour next featured weekly guest on TV or
radio. Let's give our pets theattention they deserve. Welcome back, Pet
(22:17):
Family. We are here with CarolineCharline of the Bunny Bunch Rescue and boutique
and also the Cotton Tail in wherethey help rabbits, tinchillas and guinea pigs.
This is our Easter special and wehave a pretty important topic that is
(22:38):
very very topical for an Easter special. Throughout April, many rabbit influencers and
rescues have been posting PSAs about notbuying or giving bunnies as presents to children
for Easter, and the main questionI see in the comments is why,
what's so bad about that? Well, Caroline is here to tell us in
(23:00):
detail why this is such an importantcause. In Caroline, every story is
different, but typically when you geta call for an intake who was given
as a gift, what led theowners to contacting you? Well, the
number one reason is they thought thatthey could give their child a rabbit to
(23:22):
care for. And rabbits can livetwelve to fourteen years, so it's a
big commitment. Excuse me, theycan't live in a cage, and so
people often are buying these rabbits frompet shops in California it's illegal to sell
rabbits, but a lot of statesit's still legal. And then swat meats
are full of them, street vendors, there's just all sorts of places,
(23:47):
lots of breeders, and so thesepeople, they're just in it for the
money. So East is a bigmoneymaker. So all they want to do
is get people to buy these animals. When all these rabbits, when the
people get the rabbits are often ina tiny cage, which is very cruel,
ridiculous for any type of animal tolive in. They get them home
and all of a sudden, guesswhat, there's rabbit poop all in the
(24:08):
cage and the child, you know, sweet fluffy, cute bunny. Yes,
they're great to look at, butcaring for them is a different story.
There are a lot of work.I consider them more work than cats
and dogs. Honestly, they havea long lifespan, which is fantastic for
people that really understand and want tocare for a rabbit. They do use
(24:30):
a litter box once they're spayed onutude. However, rabbits that people buy
at East to time and not spayedon utude. When a rabbit is not
spayed on YouTube. They generally won'tuse a litter box because they're marking their
territory by pooping. They can sprayurine a lot of these rabbits of babies
many way too young to even betaken away from their mother, and they
(24:52):
often die within a few days areold enough become hormonal at around four months,
which is when all of a sudden, when the spraying starts. If
they're kept in a small cage,the rabbit becomes very possessive of that cage.
When the child opens the door,the rabbit's gonna grunt and box and
can even bite. Because they're keepingthe rabbit in a tiny area, the
(25:15):
rabbits scared and feels like it hasto protect itself. So it's just honestly
terrible. Rabbits should never live ina cage, like I had said earlier,
they need to be in a largeexercise pen setup. But best is
free roam in a home. Andwhen people do this, they're just anew
to rabbits and they don't know anything. Guess what the rabbit does. It
(25:36):
goes behind the tea and choose everysingle cord back there. Guess what the
dad then says or the mum,Okay, that's it. The rabbit's gone
right. Rabbits are big chewers,and the reason is their teeth continually grow,
and so you have to rabbit proofyour home for it to be first
safe of the rabbit and then secondso you don't have your cords and coffee
(25:56):
tables and carpet dug up and baseboardschewed those areas that rabbits will do.
And when people adopt from us,I tell them, you know, if
you rent, you can probably planon not getting your deposit back because even
though you can rabbit proof, rabbitsare normally going to do something right,
you know. But honestly it's theyou know, the parents getting them for
(26:18):
the children, thinking the children cancare for them. Children are busy,
children are children. I mean peoplecall us at east time, I want
a rabbit for my two year oldor my four year old said they want
a rabbit. I mean, youknow, it's just ridiculous. Yeah,
it's an ongoing and it's just allthese awful places, a lot of them
selling rabbits illegally. Yeah, andyou know, I want to kind of
(26:41):
go into the swat meats. Iknow, we usually see, you know,
puppies and kittens being sold at swatmeats and flea markets. Those typically
come from places like puppy mills,and I assume, you know, rabbits
kind of have the same set up. Well here in California, it's illegal
to sell cats, dogs, rabbits, other animals too at swat meats,
(27:07):
pet shops, different places like that, unless they have come from a rescue
or a shelter. So, forinstance, a rescue group can go to
a pet shop and hold an eventto adopt rabbits out. That law changed
several years ago in California. However, all the people doing that just found
a different way to do it,right, they do still sell them.
I don't really see cats and dogs, and I haven't for a long time,
(27:30):
but I do see all sorts ofother animals, lots of birds,
fish, tortoises, turtles, obviously, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas,
hamsters, rats. I mean,I could go on and so, and
it's awful. They're in disgusting conditions, and that's something we do. We
actually go undercover and get the informationto report them. But it still carries
(27:52):
on. So it's you know,animal control more laws have to change to
really put an end. It's theonly thing that's going to stop all of
this, right, Yeah, andI know I'm not too sure about the
laws here in Texas, but Ihave seen, you know, rabbits being
sold. Birds, definitely a lotof chickens and ducklings. I've definitely seen
(28:14):
those sold at flea markets before.And yeah, they're not They're typically not
kept in the best conditions. Andyou know, typically when you hear stories
of you know, puppies or bunniesor you know, anyone really being sold
at swap meats and flea markets,it's because you know, they have them
in tiny cages, kids find them, or an adult finds them and feel
(28:38):
bad, or you know, getcaught up in the puppy dog eyes.
Do you think there's similar motives?You know, when bunnies are being sold,
kind of present them as you know, super cute, super easy,
you should just buy one. Soall the time I hear it, and
unfortunately it's not just Easta here wereso heavily populated. It's all yea long,
(29:00):
but yes, that's it. Yousee this poor rabbit in these lots
of rabbits, I mean they literallyhave hundreds of them at the SMA,
and you're just looking at them.They're sitting in their own poop and pee,
and they'll be you know. SometimesI've even seen live rabbits with a
dead rabbit in the cage. Peopleselling them don't even know, you know,
(29:21):
and they'll they'll be like twenty rabbitsin a tiny, tiny cage,
just jammed in on top of eachother. I mean, the conditions are
just unbelievably awful. And yes,people want to rescue the rabbit. Unfortunately,
what happens is by giving these peoplemoney, it can they continue on.
But it's a catch twenty two.And the babies, they have.
One big thing they do is theyhave the tiny babies. Rabbits need to
(29:45):
stay with their mother normally till eightweeks old, but they start open,
they open their eyes around twelve weeksand then start nibbling on hay. And
so people will see these tiny babieseating hey, thinking they're weaned and they're
not right, you know, andso these people they take them away from
their mother, and a lot ofpeople that don't know rabbits always want a
(30:06):
small rabbit, the smaller because theythink their child can handle them. Easia
and they can live in a smallcage. Neither are true. And unfortunately
they even tell them they've been injectedwith something to keep them small. They
make up all these stories, sopeople think this rabbit's going to stay like
this. People call me all thetime the rabbit grew. They told me
it was going to stay small.And they'll send me a photo of a
(30:29):
rabbit in a cage and the rabbitcan't even stretch out in the cage.
They kept it in the cage.So these are the awful, horrible things
that happen, and this is whyit has to change, right And you
know, instead of buying a rabbit, you can also report the seller.
How do you go about reporting them? And what is the organization you can
(30:55):
call or email to report them?Great question. So that's what I'm actually
going to be doing Sundays undercover atthese swap meets. And what I do
is you need to get as manyphotos or video as much as you can.
It's best to have an undercover camerabecause they know if they see you
taking photos with your phone, they'regoing to start yelling at you. The
(31:15):
people selling. You need to getthe space number. That's really important.
You have to have the full addressof the swat meat flea market whatever it
is. And then basically there's differentlaws in different states, but you can
report animal abuse for no water,no food, no shade, filthy conditions
(31:36):
and being ill, medical conditions andunfortunately there's great animal controls and there's awful
animal controls. But no matter what, even if you're working with an animal
control that really doesn't do a lot, if you keep on about it,
to report it, follow up thenext day, find out when they went
out. That's not the end ofit, though. Unfortunately they'll go out
(31:57):
and sometimes they're just told to,you know, have better conditions. Now
this is where it's being If it'snot legal, obviously then that's good because
it should be stopped. But whenit's legal, they can you know,
let's say a pet shop, aswap me, they'll tell them to have
better conditions. So they may nevergo back to check. So it's up
to the person doing this going outthere, checking again, getting more photos,
(32:21):
reporting it again. You have tobe persistent and carry on. It's
not a one time thing. It'sgreat and it does work because I've done
it, and anyone that needs helpwith any suggestions you know, they can
email me, call me, ortext me, because this is one of
the big things we're trying to getpeople to do, especially this weekend,
but actually all year long. Right. Yeah, and guys again, if
(32:44):
you want that number or email orto contact it is funny Bunch dot org.
There's everything there. We're going totake a quick break and we'll be
right back with Caroline Charline from FunnyBunch Rabbit Rescue at Nava Pets. We
(33:10):
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You can spoil your pet with goodness, treat your pet like they treat
you. Welcome back pet Family.We are here with Caroline Charline from the
(34:23):
Bunny Bunch Rabbit Rescue and we weretalking about finding rabbits at swat meats and
flea markets and how you can reportunjust conditions for the animals at swat meats.
Now I want to get into someof the rabbit care because we hear
(34:44):
stories like this all the time inthe animal world. A lot of them
begin with people who think, oh, well, I won't do that,
I'm different or my kids are different, but don't do any research and act
on impulse. I want to talkabout the required care for rabbits, so
hopefully for the people who are listeningand may still be mulling over the thought
(35:06):
of getting their child a rabbit asa present, may rethink or at least
put some effort into researching and preparingfor the responsibility of owning a rabbit.
First things first, Rabbits are justlike dogs and cats. You can't keep
them in a tiny cage all day. Carolyn, what is proper housing for
the average rabbit. Well, theyactually can't be in a cage at all.
(35:30):
There's there are no cages that arebig enough for them. So I
tell people, you know, ifyou went to if you wanted a cat
or a dog, and brought acat or dog at home, you wouldn't
put a cat or dog in acage. I know, great train which
is different, however, so rabbit, the best thing for the rabbit is
to be free roam in a rabbitproofed home. Rabbits love to run around.
(35:52):
They do. They run and dosomething called a binkie, which is
the cutest thing you've ever seen.They jump up and twist in the air.
That's a happy rabbit. And soprovide hiding a very large area your
home, half of your home.A room in your home is a lot
better than confining a rabbit. However, there are times when you might have
to confine a rabbit, and somepeople, for whatever reason, can't do
(36:14):
free room, in which case wesuggest an exercise pen, which is like
a puppy pen. The metal onesthe best They generally come as four foot
by four foot meaning four foot white, you know, four foot square on
the floor, which really isn't enoughroom, So putting two of those together
would be best. The more roomyou have, the bigger you can make
(36:35):
it, the better. You haveto have enough room for a big litter
box, a big hide house,room for them to be able to run
around and do some binking even whenthey're in the pen. And then when
they are in a pen like that, they still have to come out for
about oh, you know, thesix hours a day. The more time
the better, right, Yeah,And what are some things that you have
(36:55):
to do to rabbit prove your home? Well, electric chords are a big
one. For some reason, theyjust find them, go straight to them
and shoot straight through them. Soyour phone cord, your light chords.
And they're very smart. Rabbits arevery intelligent and when they want to do
something, they normally find a way. So you have to find a way
that they can't do that. Andthere's all sorts of rabbit proofing ideas on
(37:20):
YouTube, and you'll find online thereare cord covers for electric chords. If
you have a lot of chords.This is what I tell people behind the
TV. You know, get abig plastic box, put all the chords
in the box, cut a littleslit, and so you only have from
the box to the wall where youplug in shown and then you cover those
(37:42):
with metal cord covers. But there'sall sorts of stuff. Something else very
important are plants, because a lotof plants are poisonous and to rabbits.
So if you do have plants,you've got to make sure they're safe and
you definitely don't want any poisonous plantsin the house. And then baseboards are
a big one. Rabbits love tochew baseboards and so basically for that,
you can get a unfinished baseboard,tack it onto your baseboard, and so
(38:07):
if they chew that, it's okay, and if you move out, you
take it off and your baseboards underneathare okay. Wow. Yeah, a
lot of thinking around things. Ilike that. And so after rabbit proving
and getting all they need, whyis the average cost for setting all of
this up? You know, itdepends on what you want to do.
(38:30):
I just yesterday had someone that adopteda rabbit and they got everything from Buddy
Bunch of boutique and our prices area lot lower than most places. Actually,
we had two people and one personspent around four hundred dollars. The
other person spent around two hundred dollarsand what they both got was perfectly good
for the rabbits they adopted. Andso it just depends on how what you
(38:52):
want to do. You know,some people go all out and get everything
you can. Some people get thenecessities like the exercise pen, the litter
box, the hey food pellets,some choo, some treats, a carrier,
you need to have a hard carrier, not a soft one, they're
not safe. Top opening is best. And then you know, some toys
(39:14):
and chews, so you can justget the necessities, and then you can
always add because you know they're goingto chew through a lot of this stuff
and you're going to be continually replacingit. Right, perfect, thank you.
So what would you tell someone whohas heard all of this and is
still convinced a rabbit as a goodEaster present for their child, Well,
(39:35):
if the parents, see, here'sthe thing we do adopt to families,
and so how we look at everythingis if the parents are the ones that
want the rabbit, have done alot of work researching, and I tell
people take weeks even a month todo the research because you're going to learn
so much. You know, thisis for year round, you know,
and you've talked to a rescue,for sure, talk to a rescue because
(39:59):
they'll tell you the true all thegood things. That's the first thing I
tell people. We're going to tellyou all the good things and all the
bad things because we want them tomake the right choice. And a lot
of people change their mind and saythank you for telling us that we're not
going to do it. So alot of people you can't convince, no
matter why. People hang up onme every day and especially this week when
I'm telling them all this infot theyjust click hang up. And so you
(40:21):
know, there are people that willinsist they're going to get a rabbit.
And what I try to do withthose people, even though I can tell
it's not going to work out andthey're going to be calling me in a
few weeks, I try to givethem as much information as I can to
help that rabbit so they possibly cando everything correctly. And that's basically the
extent of it, because you know, you're just some people are going to
(40:42):
do what they do, and youcan talk till you're blue in the face
and they're not going to listen.But thank goodness, a lot of people
listen. But one big thing isI hope you like a lot of poop
in the house. I hope youlike a lot of hair, because rabbits
shared a lot need grooming. Ihope you don't mind hail over your house.
I mean, it's not really allover your house. It's in the
box, but they jump out ifthe child's caring for them, they drop
hay everywhere. And I hope youlike a lot of work. Right.
(41:07):
Thanks for the people that don't wantto listen, right, Thank you so
much Caroline for coming on the show. It's been very educational and wonderful to
have you today. Please let everyoneknow where they can find Bunny Bunch Rescue
at bunny Bunch dot Org is ourwebsite and we have addresses on there.
(41:28):
We're in southern California in Fountain Valleyand Montclair, and like I said,
we're hoping to open up Los Angeleswith fundraising right now for that. And
then Bunny Bunch Boutique dot com isthe store where we sell everything, and
a portion from every single sale goesto Bunny Bunch to help save lives.
Amazing. Oh, thank you somuch again, Caroline. This has been
(41:50):
the pet Owner Diary show. Myname is Tatiemaker and we'll see you back
here next week, same time,same place. Goodbye. Thank you for
joining us on Pet Owner Diary.Make sure to visit our website pet Ownerdiary
dot com, where you can signup for our newsletter, view show highlights,
and download each episode via SoundCloud.Make sure to subscribe to the show
(42:13):
on your favorite podcast app too,so you and your pet never miss an
episode Pet Family. If you likewhat you hear, please share on your
social media and tell a friend totune in on behalf of America's Pet Owner
Coach, Janelle Young. We wishyou love, peace and harmony with your
pet. We'll catch you in thenext episode.
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