Meet Rabbitats, a Pet Valu Companions for Change™ supported charity

Rabbitats, a volunteer-run rabbit rescue organization based in Vancouver and Lower Mainland British Columbia, takes a unique approach to animal rescue.  Faced with an overwhelming number of abandoned rabbits in the region, Rabbitats facilitates the building of homes for entire colonies of animals in need of care.  “Due to the large amount of bunnies,” says the group’s Research and Advocacy Assistant, Alison Babichuk, “there's just not enough people to adopt that many. So our solution is Rabbitats, which are colonies of rabbits in large enclosures that people can have on their property if they have a backyard, or at retirement facilities, community centres, in gardens, or anywhere that has the space and capacity to host a large number of rabbits.” Instead of finding individual homes for each abandoned rabbit, a Rabbitats enclosure can house between a dozen and 30 animals.  “This is the best, most efficient way to get as many rabbits housed as possible, “ says Alison, “and they get to have social interaction with each other.”  Taking care of 30 rabbits may sound challenging but Rabbitats provides support at every stage of the process. They assist with sourcing materials and building predator-proof enclosures and they continue to help even after the colony is set up.  “We send volunteers to help with daily rabbit care and health checks,” says Alison. “So it's not something where you’re all by yourself. We're here to help you. We love these bunnies and we want them to live a long, healthy life.” The costs of caring for the rabbits are also shared. “Because it is a foster situation,” she explains, “all the medical costs would be covered by us. All people need to provide is space for them to live and food. And the bunnies, they look after each other. They have these incredible social structures. And we have really amazing volunteers that are so dedicated to helping the rabbits and they're more than happy to come and help.” Using a $35,000 sponsorship from Pet Valu, the organization is building a mobile rabbit shelter and education centre that they’ll use to extend their outreach and education efforts. The vehicle will host ‘Meet and Treat’ events where potential adoptive families can receive an introduction to what it means to be a rabbit pet parent.  “Meet and Treats are really great because they're essentially a no-touch, anti-petting zoo concept with very low-stress interaction with the bunnies,” Alison explains. “If a person wants to give them veggies, that's awesome, but if they want to just hide and do their own thing, they have the option to do that as well.”  The new vehicle will support Rabbitats as they work to match these amazing pets with pet families. “We’ll be able to be quite flexible with our use of the bus. We're using the funds to help with our mobile vax clinics and that's going to be a really great step in the right direction as well.”