Fred's Story
“I feel about them as if they were my children…” was
what was quote to me on 11/2/2004. Be prepare to hear a
horrifying story and for those of you squeamish, some
graphic pictures.
Fred is in the forefront (left spotted
one) in the pool in 2004.
It started with lies and ended with lies and the outcome
was the unbelievable suffering endured by a rabbit left in a
box outside to die.
Recently, a representative of Friends of Rabbits (FOR)
heard a contestant at a “Miss Teen-type” pageant claimed to
do community service with the House Rabbit Society. This was
found to be false as this child had not volunteers in years with the
organization and never had approval from the Chapter Manager
to be a representative.
Fred is in the black litterbox in 2004.
How we came to know this rabbit we call Fred, was the
result of a woman who called me about a litter of baby
rabbits that was intended to teach her two young children
about the miracle of life. This family ended up having a
second litter totaling to about 12-13 rabbits. I gave her
advice about how to care for her rabbits and how they all
needed to be spayed or neutered. This woman explained that
her family was low income and can’t afford to spay/neuter
the rabbits. Being young and naïve, I scrap together money
along with one other volunteer, and we both paid to have her
rabbits spayed/neutered.
A few years later, this woman asked me to help watch her
7 remaining rabbits while she was away at a national pageant
and her parents who typically watched the rabbits were in
Guatemala. In exchange for watching their rabbits, they
permitted me to use their pick-up truck to pick up hay about
5 times until a volunteer bought a truck. This was when I
realized that this family was not as poor as they claimed
and I also found the rabbits housed outside which, as we
know, is not recommended because of predators and
parasites/disease. Sure enough, their rabbits were attacked
by predators, leaving entrails and body parts all over their
yard and killing about 4 of the rabbits. Despite this
incident, the rabbits continued to be exposed to such
dangers and the result was one rabbit surviving, Fred, but
barely.
Fortunately for Fred, the woman’s daughter called FOR
around 10 PM and said her rabbit was sick and their family
can’t afford to take the rabbit to the vet. So one of our
representatives went over for a look since she lived a few
minutes away from this family’s home.
Our representative found him left outside his house
emaciated, dehydrate, covered in mites, infested with
maggots, extensive urine scald, immobile, cold and dying.
The family claimed that this rabbit just started to become
sick that day. This was realistically impossible, it was
clear this rabbit had been suffering some terrible neglect
and abuse for a long time.
We typically do not take owner surrenders of rabbits, but
in good conscience, our representative could not leave this
rabbit to continue to endure this suffering and asked to
take the rabbit, even if she was to pay a few dollars to
have this poor bunny euthanized. It was clear, that this
family choose not to take the animal to the veterinarian and
whether or not they could afford it at the time, many of us
have credit cards and if not, can make payment plans with
our veterinarians if we can’t afford to pay immediately.
So maggots were falling out of this rabbit’s pelvis and
in the short time frame that this rabbit was in our
representative’s house, flies were already being released
and the house was infested with flies for days! Another
representative drove an hour in the early morning hours to
get this rabbit stabilized and another hour to the Emergency
Veterinary Clinic of Fair Oaks at Pender Veterinary Centre.
The veterinarian recommended euthanizing the rabbit. It
was a very hard decision and our representatives decided to
try to save him and they spent $2000 out of their own
pockets. The veterinarian cleaned out a fistful of maggots
over the next few days and helping him to become stable
enough to be cared for in our foster home INDOORS.
Fred is not stable but still very far from recovery.
These are photos of Fred after THREE weeks of veterinary
care and pampering.
Fred NOW in 2008.
As advocates for the animals, specifically rabbits in our
case, it’s tragic to see animals so cruelly treated. The
pain and suffering that Fred endured is real and unfortunate
and happens to animals everyday. I have been rescuing
rabbits for nearly 14 years and he is one of the worst
conditions I have ever seen—and this is after three weeks of
treatment. I can’t even imagine how he appeared the day he
came to us.
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