January 4th, 2011....

.....early morning of that date marked the birth of 11 babies by a bunny that had been running loose and was captured and brought to Heartland Rabbit Rescue by the director and a dedicated volunteer. The new mom had only arrived at the shelter a few days earlier.

Instead of one new refugee, the population of the south warren was now increased by about 15%. While 2 of the babies did not survive....the remaining 9 are beautiful and cute and fun and wonderful.....but.....each baby born in a shelter means some other bunny cannot be rescued.

Some bunny, or cat, or dog facing execution in a municipal shelter will possibly not be accepted by a shelter that does not practice the killing of healthy animals.......because of lack of space due to births by animals that came into that shelter already pregnant.

If that bunny or cat or dog was pregnant, that meant some human that was responsible for them.....failed them....and failed any other animal that couldn't be rescued because of unanticipated shelter births. Think of it this way, every shelter birth means somewhere some other animal will die. Every animal purchased from a breeder means.....some animal in a shelter somewhere dies because they weren't adopted.

Make no mistake, humans fooling around with the lives of others by domesticating living beings and making them dependent on us also makes us responsible for those lives......and for those deaths. Get it?

Enough growling from me..........now for the cute part. First is a still photo of the tiny one of the bunch, he/she is bracketed by yellow arrows. This little one, right now is less than half as large as the siblings.  The white fuzzy stuff surrounding them is fur that mom pulled off of her chest to make a nest for the kiddos.

The tiny one.......age 1 week

Next is a video taken on January 13th, when the children were 9 days old and shows them and mom after they have been transferred to their brand new enclosure. All of the fur from the old box was (after the video) used to cover them back up....all snug and warm.

So far mom has been doing a great job of caring for her babies.....domestic mom rabbits do not hang around their youngsters except when nursing and cleaning them. It is speculated that the reason for this is a reduction in chances that a predator will find the babies. Rabbit babies have almost no scent and mom staying away reduces chances that a predator will be able to locate the babies by smell.  Notice the round tummies....mom is doing her job admirably.

The babies are terrific, yet this situation exemplifies ambivalence......because of their unexpected arrival and the resources and time needed to care for them....somewhere, sometime some other bunny animal(s) may well not be rescued.

Spay and/or neuter companion animals, please. Urge others to do so....and begin living as an ethical vegan....please.