Local zoo needs some education, I think....

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undergunfire

undergunfire

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Ryan and I took a little drive over to the Heritage Park Zoo today. It is our local zoo, not very big, but a nice place to go to every now and then.

I was excited to see the bunny enclosure, because I haven't been to the zoo in over a year and I wasn't "into" bunnies at the time. Well, what I saw was so upsetting, to me....a "bunny person"....


Here are the pictures of the rabbit enclosure:
l_01588935a6083212471c3a55a3d46f5c.jpg

l_8d1770101710e34e87a9f167c06837c9.jpg




I wrote this email to the head zoo keeper. I hope they will listen to me....


"Hello!

I wasn't sure who to email, but I hope I am emailing the right person!

My name is Amy and I live right here in Prescott. I am a "mommy" to three neutered male house rabbits, and have been a devoted rabbit person for a year now. I am extremely active on the most popular rabbit forum on the internet, where I help handfuls of people daily with their bunnies. I love to help educate people about rabbits and their care. Rabbits are difficult animals to keep, they can be expensive, and time consuming. Rabbits are MORE than "hutch pets", which I am sure you can understand.

I visited the zoo today and was extremely excited to see the domesticated rabbit enclosure, believe it or not, the bunny was more exciting to me than the Tiger or any other animal!


As I walked up to the rabbit enclosure, my excitement faded and my heart ached. I saw a lovely black bunny, who had lots of sadness in his eyes. He didn't have another spayed or neutered bunny as a friend, no toys, and I also didn't notice any hay (which rabbits need available to them at all times), but I did see straw, which lacks the nutrients bunnies need. In fact, his enclosure seemed like a blank canvas, it was boring...and not at all stimulating to the bunny. This really broke my heart, and I have been thinking about the bunny ever since I visited the zoo a few hours ago.

Rabbits love toys. I see my three house bunnies play with their toys constantly. They love small slinkies to toss around, wiffle balls, cat balls with bells inside, safe stuffed animals, wicker baskets to chew, wood blocks to chew on, paper bags, large cardboard boxes, baby keys and other safe hard baby toys, ect. This bunny didn't have ANY toys, at all. The bunny was sitting in a corner, bored as can be.


I do know that the zoo takes in bunnies that people no longer want, and I think that is very helpful to the bunnies, but I think more attention and care should be given to the bunnies that the zoo takes in. The rabbit may be healthy and given food and water daily, but there is way more to it than that.

Does the zoo need someone to come volunteer and spend time with the bunny on the weekends? I'd be willing to do just that, AND donate lots of toys to this bunny, that very desperately needs the stimulation.


Thank you, and I hope you can understand my need for bringing this to attention.

- Amy Gregorio"




I do understand that the rabbit is in a large enclosure and is lucky to have not ended up being "set free" or sitting in a shelter :), but the rabbit looked so bored and sad. It's such a large, blank space that could be turned into a GREAT bunny enclosure for any rescue bunnies they get in.
 
Yeah, he has a great enclosure - could use a bit of things to hop over or something, but another bunny to become friends with would be best!

Gotta say - at least he's not in a 16 x 24 cage
 
It does look a little bit bare, maybe they had his toys out for cleaning, or he had a partner who's ill or passed away perhaps?

I tell you what, it beats the enclosure here :?.
 
I think that enclosure is a wonderful thing, just needs a few adjustments like you mentioned, to make it even better. Would be great for homeless bunnies! If they are in a group with some more hidey things, and a bale of hay they would be more than happy!

I would love to set up something if I had the room and money to put death row bunnies in. I'm actually quite happy with that enclosure - just needs a few simple toys and hay.. and maybe a friend or two:). Atleast with my guys, if they have a friend, they don't really care if they get any human attention :p.

Maybe next time you go, bring some cardboard boxes and other free toys?

Great job sending the email, hopefully they act on it! This is something that could turn out to be something GREAT for the bunnies!
 
That is why I offered to volunteer :). I see many posts on online adds for bunnies that need homes. Maybe if they accept me as a "bunny volunteer", they will take in another bunny as a rescue and I can bond them.

I doubt the toys and such were missing because of cleaning, because I slightly remember this enclosure last year and it looks the same, in my mind. They have another HUTCH for a bunny, outside this enclosure, but there wasn't a bunny in it...good thing, it was small!

I am sure many people go to the zoo and see the bunny, but I am sure those people haven't seen what I have seen, because they aren't "bunny people". This rabbit needs a fun enclosure! All the other animals have many things to play on and such, but this bunny has nothing. Shoot, even the Badger had a stuffed animal toy :shock:.

I see this enclosure as a blank canvas...it can be made into something beautiful!



Anyway, if they won't accept me as a volunteer for JUST the bunny (I don't have interest to work with the other animals)....then I hope they will accept a donation from me of toys for the bunny.
 
I think they'd be happy to have someone come in and bring some toys, and keep them cleaned and all that. Maybe they will have you work and bond another one.

That would be a great thing! Good luck!
 
That's an awesome bunny set up! Just some hay, companionshipand a few diversions, it's bunny heaven. :) It would be great it they'd allow more bunnies in there.

And I wouldn't suggest plastichouse-bunny toys, probably not really a 'zoo' thing, they normally like natural habitat stuff (and so do the bunnies). Organic apple or pear tree branches, willow rings, maybe a hollow log fora tunnel would go over better. And I think a cardboard fort would be awesome if it's deemed natural enough for them.

Great letter! Great offer! Let us know the response!



sas :hug1
 
This is a domesticated bunny, though, not a wild one...I would hope they would allow bunny toys :D! The Badger had a purple stuffed animal, and the Black Bear has a HUGE horse ball....they don't have those in the wild :p.

I, personally, think they are showing people who come to the zoo, that it is okay for your bunny to not have any toys or hay.

I'll just have to wait and see what they say to me in an email. I am just pretty dissapointed because the enclosure is so boring and not stimulation....and this is a zoo....they should have a "real" habitat, ya know? It's hard to explain what I am trying to say :p.

Overall, props to them for giving the bunny a huge area and probably saving it's life. I just hope I can get them to change up the enclosure :biggrin2:!
 
I agree, you wrote a great letter, Amy. My only add-in is: do they have a shelter area to protect the buns from the hot Arizona sun? I couldn't tell for sure. :)


 
Yeah, I agree about the natural toys! that would be neat!

If they put a few old stumps and logs with all the bark they would like that! Maybe even have piles of dirt for them to dig in? So many possibilities to improve a great enclosure!

Yeah, I think they do :D. There's a little wooden hide out to the right side and I think a cover at the back?
 
Raspberry82 wrote:
I agree, you wrote a great letter, Amy. My only add-in is: do they have a shelter area to protect the buns from the hot Arizona sun? I couldn't tell for sure. :)
Click to expand...

Well, the enclosure is covered, and in the bottom right hand corner of the second picture, you will see a "hutch" type thing. I am sure that hutch thing blocks the sun, but I am not sure what they do for the heat in the summer...as far as frozen water bottles or something.
 
Aw poor bunny all alone :( I agree that it looks a little boring in there. And bunnies need hay!

Glad you sent the email! Can't wait to hear what happens! :biggrin2:
 
I hope I recieve a responce tomorrow *crosses fingers and toes*. I will be checking my email all day on my cell phone for a responce, but I won't be able to post the updates until I get home from work :p.
 
No email from the zoo yet. I may email the Director (or head person) of the zoo the same email :).
 
I got a responce from the zoo, and much to my suprise...I was quite wrong with some things!


"Hi Amy,
I want to thank you for your interest in our facility and concern about the rabbits in particular. I am sorry it took me awhile to respond, but I’m out on the grounds much more than I am at a desk to be able to check e-mails! To address your questions, there are in fact two rabbits which share that enclosure. They are brothers who came to us with the rest of their family in the trunk of someone’s car in the middle of summer L! We were able to place all the animals with good homes, and the two that remain with us enjoy each other’s company immensely. They can often be seen romping and playing together, and in fact are taken out of their enclosure frequently to interact with people for educational purposes.

I’m surprised that you said you saw straw in with them because we have never given that to any of our rabbits. They do get timothy hay daily, and perhaps you happened to see the enclosure between cleaning out the old and giving them fresh grass that day. If you have rabbit-safe toys that you’d like to donate to the sanctuary, we’d LOVE to have them. Donations and volunteer contributions are extremely important to the work that we do here.

Please call me directly here at the zoo: ***********, and leave a message if you get our answering machine. I will get back to you as soon as possible to arrange your bringing them out. Again we really appreciate your offer of help to enhance the lives of our residents, and I’ll look forward to talking with you.

Susanna Koenig
Keeper III
Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary"




I didn't see any hay, but I did see straw inside the hutch thingy. She could be right, they possibly were in the middle of cleaning out the enclosure. I also didn't see another rabbit at all, and I stood by the enclosure for quite a while. Odd!
Ah, well. I am happy with her email and I will be calling her tomorrow to arrange the drop off of bunny toys! I have so many thick cardboard rings and baby toys for those two bunnies :).

I actually feel quite foolish with the email that I emailed to her. I really did see a sad bunny and felt a lot of sad emotions for that bunny. I wish I had known he had a friend and stuff, so I didn't have to think about that "poor little bunny" all this time.

Anyway, great story about the bunnies being saved from the trunk. I am happy the bunnies do seem to have a great life at the zoo. I am sure their lives will be a bit better once I bring them toys :D!
 
That was a great letter tho! and she might have not known that they gave straw for bedding or something - who knows? at least it has been brought to her attention.

Honestly tho - we live in a state full of green hay fields and some of our hay last year looks like straw! and it's supposed to be mixed alfalfa and grass - it's sad.

In addition - I wonder if the other bunny was out with someone doing some sort of educational thing or even if they had one out to do a health check or something?

I think that you should go and meet her and definitely see if she can give you a tour of the area they are in - maybe they have other domestic animals (ours does - like rats, cats, etc) and volunteer there? it might be very rewarding and such a benefit for the animals.

Good job!
 
Bo B Bunny wrote:
I think that you should go and meet her and definitely see if she can give you a tour of the area they are in - maybe they have other domestic animals (ours does - like rats, cats, etc) and volunteer there? it might be very rewarding and such a benefit for the animals.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely try to give her a call tomorrow and see if we can set something up for this weekend :). I'd love to volunteer when I can!

I do agree about the hay being yellowish or something because the hay from the feed store here does seem yellow, I did send her another email to let her know that I feel quite foolish and should have known better than to think that the zoo didn't know how to care for their animals.

Now I've got to gather up toys. I have TONS of very hard cardboard circles from tapes for packaging and stuff at work, some baby toys, and I'll have to make a trip to the dollar store for some willow wreaths :D.
 
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