Update: Animals: You bought it, you keep it

I called Animal Allies about my blog entry "Animals: You bought it, you keep it" and was referred to Wildwoods Rehabilitation.  I sent an email to the organization with a reference to my blog entry.

Peggy Farr read it and thought that the rabbit was a snowshoe rabbit with its summer coat.  She said it probably didn't run away because it was sick.  She also wrote: "What you say about people releasing pets onto the wild is unfortunately too true and too common--we've seen rabbits, box turtles, snakes, ferrets, parakeets, cockatiels, and larger parrots, as well as many domestic ducks (rouens), a type that look like mallards but aren't, come to us in desperate condition.  Their stories are heart-breaking."

Animals: You bought it, you keep it

Last weekend I saw a brown rabbit at the side of a path.  It didn't move as I approached.  I bent down and took this picture.

As I stood up, it bounded away.

Was it "hiding" in plain sight?  Was it tame and unafraid?

Given that the rabbit was brown rather than grey, a friend suggested that it was a descendant of a pet rabbit released in the wild.  Considering its size, I would say it was born this spring.  But, because it didn't run away as I approached, like the wild ones in our Duluth yard, I would say it had been owned by people who had held it and petted it.

If you buy an "easter bunny", please keep it and care for it for its lifetime.  You aren't doing it any favors by releasing it in the countryside somewhere.  This week I saw its corpse lying by the side of the path a few hundred feet from where I had seen it before.  I didn't take a picture and I won't write a description of what I saw.

See an update at http://magree.blogspot.com/2011/09/update-animals-you-bought-it-you-keep.html.