‘And now for something completely different’: rabbits!

Forget about all the cartoon and fictional rabbits you may be familiar with.  Let’s talk about pet rabbits, their growing popularity and numbers – and how to assure they enjoy healthy, happy lives. 

The best person to discuss all this is Janine Motta, an animal advocate who has served for eight years as executive director of the New Jersey House Rabbit Society and who dearly loves her own six bunnies.

“House rabbit” is the correct term for such bunnies, who are not the wild cottontails we might spot in our back yards.  (In fact, it’s illegal in NJ to keep the wild cottontail rabbit captive.)  House rabbits are descended from European rabbits.

Motta’s bunny love began when as a child, she was given one as an Easter present.  While many pet rabbits start that way, she says, it can end badly if they join families clueless about taking care of rabbits.  Then the worst can happen to these fragile pets: injury, illness, abandonment or death.

When Motta later volunteered at a shelter, she quickly noticed the rabbit residents were “third class citizens,” so when she left, she took six bunnies with her, thereby “cleaning out” the rabbit area.   

The rabbits who call her Hunterdon county home their house are all named, spay-neutered and live in pairs, which she describes as “the sweetest thing.”  But, she cautions, “It’s an art to introduce rabbits to one another.  You can’t just put two rabbits together.”  

One reason: they’re territorial, and even siblings are not necessarily bonded rabbits.  Two males are the hardest to bond, then two females.

Motta’s domesticated companion rabbits have included various breeds and colors, including some whose straight ears had been bred into “lop ears” -- floppy instead of erect.  Cute, no doubt, but she notes that such bunnies can’t express themselves as well as others with their ears, and the different shapes of their heads can lead to teeth problems.

Considering rabbits, so appealingly small, soft and cuddly-looking creatures, it’s easy to understand how people looking for a pet might confuse live bunnies with the stuffed animal-rabbits out there: plush feel, mild mannered, liftable and huggable.

But Motta knows better, and her rabbit savvy shatters countless false assumptions about bunnies.  First of all, she says, a rabbit is “definitely not a great starter pet,” adding, “They have requirements beyond those of cats and dogs.”

Serious research should precede deciding to get a pet rabbit.  “They’re not easy to care for,” she says, and worse, they’re often falsely associated with children, who simply can’t be expected to take responsibility for their care.

Naturally active and loud, children can stress bunnies, who typically don’t like being picked up and carried around.  Why not?  The rabbit could merely wiggle and possibly fall or jump out of someone’s arms, leading to injury.  And, as prey animals, they instinctively fear hawks and other predators who could lift and carry them away. 

Rabbits must be protected from potentially fatal gastrointestinal illness by eating  regularly and well, rather than free-feeding on pellets, and they must be shielded from a deadly virus making the rounds among bunnies right now.  

During a life span of 8-10 years or more, rabbits are bound to need veterinarian visits.  But “rabbit vets” are rare, Motta warns – and their fees are very high, starting with sterilization costs.  (Visit her organization’s website -- NJHRS.com – to learn about their lower-cost spay/neuter certificate program, and/or try a Google search.)   

Adoptable rabbits are available from rabbit rescues and pet shops, she says, as well as Petfinder, and she points to Rabbit.org, the website of the national House Rabbit Society, as the comprehensive source of information about rabbits.  

Despite what you might think, Motta’s animal advocacy is not wholly devoted to rabbits.  For more than 30 years, she’s been affiliated with the Animal Protection League of New Jersey (aplnj.org), serving for most of that time as its programs director.  Her initiatives and activities with that organization are another (long and illustrious) story.

(Note:  Shown top to bottom, Janine Motta's rabbits are Desiree (now deceased), Sammy & Pip, Yolanda & Amelia, and Lola & Linus.) 

#