It’s almost a month after Easter Sunday—the best time to write about rabbits. Every article written by animal advocates about Easter bunnies—my own stuff included—attempts to warn readers away from buying rabbits as Easter gifts. But too many people still equate live bunnies with the stuffed pink ones in Easter baskets.
The problem is what happens when rabbits aren’t brought into the family with education, forethought and preparation. Rabbits that grow up and are no longer adorable in the eyes of the purchaser or else prove to be too much responsibility are often dumped in parks, college campuses or other places you may shudder imagine. (Click here for an article about the Rabbit Population Management Task Force that Long Beach Community College employees Donna Prindle and Jacque Olson successfully organized to deal with rabbits run rampant on the campus; it was very successful—hardly any there now!). Domestic rabbits are subject to predators that include wildlife, humans and wild rabbits who’ll thrash the daylights out of the little intruders.
And then there’s that thing that rabbits are famous for. Easter comes in spring, spring represents growth and life, the rabbit itself is a symbol of fertility and is a living creature, so there you go. Rabbits multiply like rabbits, so they need to be spayed or neutered, depending on gender, and bunnies bought from breeders or bunny mills (they exist and are as insidious as puppy mills). Woe be to the bunnies who are brought in opposite-sex pairs.
If their rabbits’ feet work for them, though, they’ll get to live at the new Bunny Barn at Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS). The Bunny Barn is a brand-new rustic condo for coneys situated on the shelter grounds. ACS volunteer and lead rescue partner Daniel Marolda pulled the idea out of a hat and used his own carpentry skills in tandem with those of a group of Eagle Scouts to bring it into reality. Jason Barnes from Boy Scout Troop #357 led his troop in building the outside structure, serving as his Eagle Scout project, and Marolda took care of the inside—the flooring, the walls and the cages. Toyota’s volunteers put in the grass lawn during National Public Lands Day—the Bunny Barn turned out to be quite the super-hutch.
Marolda is particular to rabbits—he has two that he adopted from the shelter—and so his passion went into building the shelter inside the shelter.
“It was just an empty shell, and Daniel actually made it a home,” said ACS manager Ted Stevens at the shelter’s open house in January. “Now it’s a Bunny Barn and park. Daniel takes the bunnies out for exercise there.”
ACS manager Ted Stevens and Fifth District council member Stacy Mungo at ACS’s open house.
Before the barn was built, the shelter rabbits were housed in cat cottages and in the hallways. This gave them little to no visibility, and shelter visitors often didn’t know that there were any available. “Bunnies don’t have much of a voice,” Marolda quipped. “Now, they do. The Bunny Barn puts more light on them.”
Rabbit intake,as with cats, is seasonal, and although the House Rabbit Society, an international nonprofit animal-welfare organization, found that rabbits comprise the third-largest number of animals surrendered to shelter, they also stated that it’s difficult to come up with the percentage of rabbits in shelters because they’re generally classified with “other.”
ACS’s “other” includes rabbits, birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, lizards and once, a horse. In 2014, the shelter’s impound number for rabbits was 118 rabbits out of 1,744. Of the rabbits, 34 were owner surrenders; 72 were strays, which would include dumped animals; three were cruelty confiscations, and nine were transferred in from L.A. County after the Bunny Barn was completed.
“It’s unheard of for us to be able to do something like that!” Stevens said of the county transfer. “If our numbers remain low, we’ll be open to doing this again.”
The Barn is proving to be worth its weight in rehoming—the enhanced visibility of the rabbits has also enhanced adoptions and rescue pulls. Marolda has received two awards for his accomplishments—he was one of 28 recipients of Mayor Robert Garcia’s Go Long Beach Awards on April 12 and was presented with ACS’s Spirit of Dr. Loren Eslinger award (see Kibble, below)—but he’s modest about his role in the success of the Bunny Barn.
“I just want to say that it takes a team to run that village,” he said. “The rescue partners do so much with their time—so much for so little. It’s so good for the animals. The staff that works here now all have huge hearts. And our medical team is the best. They’re the unsung heroes.”
Marolda also credits Judy Griffith, the “rodent whisperer” who assists with rabbits and other small animals at the shelter and supports adoption; pet supply shops like the Paw Shoppe Pet Center on Spring Street, which makes room in their store to feature shelter cats and rabbits up for adoption; rescues that pull rabbits from the shelter—Marolda named the Sweetpea Foundation, the Bunny Bunch, the House Rabbit Society in San Diego, the Rabbit Rescue, and the Marina Sanctuary among others; and the volunteers at the shelter.
Rodent whisperer Judy Griffith is delighted both with the new Bunny Barn and the gentleness of a child.
Besides his own responsibilities as a rescue lead at the shelter, Marolda spends nine hours every day he’s at the shelter. He maintains the Barn and plays with and exercises the happy, hopping habitants. He’s there on weekends and holidays, and was there on Easter, too. Which brings us back to the Easter bunnies—they’re about to come hopping down the bunny trail to the Barn. Marolda said that between springtime and its fancies of bunny love and the post-Pascal surrenders, he’s busy making time and space for the surge of rabbits that soon will enter the shelter. If you’re rabbit ready, willing and able, the barn door is open. Heh.
Daniel Marolda (left) and a happy bunny pose for adoring fans. Photo by Jim Nista.
Volunteers and donations are always needed and welcome, as budgetary resources don’t always fit supply and demand. To volunteer as a rescue partner for our shelter, specifically the Bunny Barn, click this link. Donations can be made here. Daniel Marolda also invites in-kind donations such as wooden chew toys available at pet stores and the inner rolls from paper towels and toilet paper (rabbits love to chew on them).
“If it were not for the animals, we might never know that unconditional love exists.” ~ Daniel Marolda
Virtually Pets
Here are a couple of Bunny Barn babies adoptable from our shelter at 7700 E. Spring St., near Eldorado Park.
Five-month-old Nasha’s head is marked with a star. Added to four rabbit’s feet, it should make her even luckier! Answer Nasha’s wish by asking for ID#A544459.
First a star, and now the moon. Luna, like Nasha, is an American rabbit (breed, not nationality, although she’s that as well). She’s a little over a year old. Ask for ID#A544745.
Kibble
Daniel Marolda and Ted Stevens before ribbon cutting. Photo by Jim Nista.
In addition to Daniel Marolda’s Spirit of Dr. Loren Eslinger award for conceiving and organizing the construction of the Bunny Barn, there were three other honorees at ACS’s January open house. Eagle Scout Jason Barnes received the shelter’s Volunteer of the Year Award for his work on the Bunny Barn. The facility itself was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony after Ted Stevens’ presentation.
Claudia Hoffmann and Patricia Williams received the One Too Many Award for the work that their organization, Fix Long Beach, does in providing free spay and neuter services for low-income families and thus reducing the euthanasia rate and shelter intake. The statistics that Ted Stevens provided during his presentation included a notable drop in euthanasia rates; the decline has continued through March, with a decrease of 30 percent for dogs and 43 percent for cats. Stevens attributes this to Fix Long Beach’s efforts.
Patty Williams receives the One Too Many award for the work that she, Claudia Hoffmann and the Fix Long Beach volunteers have done to provide free spay/neuter procedures to Long Beach pets.
Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA), the city’s longest-standing animal advocacy group, was honored with the Community Partners Award. FOLBA dedicates itself to ending euthanasia through spaying and neutering and supports the shelter financially and in kind. FOLBA has supplied low-cost vouchers for spaying and neutering, helped with medical conditions of shelter pets, and last year formed a partnership with the Paw Shoppe Pet Center so that adoptable shelter animals may be displayed in their store. Their current project involves the construction of a veterinary clinic on the shelter grounds. The staff presently works in close, crowded quarters, and this will be a welcome addition. The clinic will also be used two days a week by FOLBA for low-cost spay and neuter.
FOLBA president Shirley Vaughan.
“We tried to make a list of what FOLBA does for us, but we ran out of paper,” Stevens said.
FOLBA president Shirley Vaughan praised the partnership with spcaLA and the P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village and Education Center, which replaced the old facility—the dungeon, as she called it—in 2001.
“It was getting pretty pathetic,” Vaughan said. “The doors were like bedroom doors—I went to open one, and the doorknob came off. [P.D. Pitchford] gives the animals a nice place to be—it doesn’t scare people off. I’m very proud of us having 25 years with them.”
Vaughan said that the shelter’s mission is to show that animal control officers aren’t “dog catchers” and that animals at the shelter aren’t throwaways.
“Please adopt from the shelters,” she encouraged the audience.
Then
Now
Pet Projects
Friends of Long Beach Animals Humane Education Program, Free, Ongoing until July
Reserve a date for this necessary program now, as it will go on hiatus in mid-June. Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOL http://www.folba.org stands by its word when it says it actively supports teaching children kindness to and respect for animals. FOLBA has provided several copies of humane books to all of the libraries in the Long Beach Unified School District, all the Public Libraries in Long Beach and Signal Hill, as well as to Raising-a-Reader and to Mary Bethune Transitional Center (assisting homeless children who need reading improvement so they can attend regular LBUSD classes). This interactive humane education program is free to all schools in the Long Beach Unified School District, Girl and Boy Scout Troops, Long Beach Parks and Libraries and Community Groups. Basic elements of the program are as follows:
- Humane treatment of all living creatures
- Basic pet care
- Proper behavior around animals
- Responsibilities and rewards of pet ownership
- Handouts and study materials
- Follow-up activities
- For information, contact: FRIENDS’ Office 562-988-7647 or Deborah Turner 562-985-3459
Low-Cost Pet Vaccination Clinics, Saturday, May 2, 1:30–3PM, Ramona Park, 3301 E. 65th St., Long Beach
Pet owners must be 18 years or older. All pets must be on leashes or in carriers. Only healthy and non-pregnant animals will be vaccinated. If you have a prior rabies vaccine certificate, license tag or license renewal notice for your pet, please bring it with you to the clinic. Vaccination and microchip services are provided for pets residing in any city. Licensing service is provided for residents within our jurisdiction: Long Beach, Signal Hill, Cerritos, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach. For more service information and pricing please visit Southern California Veterinary Vaccine Clinics.
spcaLA Friends for Life Summer Camp, June–August, spcaLA P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village & Education Center, 7700 E. Spring St. Long Beach
Paws down, this is the best summer camp around. Kids 8–13 will learn the basics of pet care and responsibility, respect for all animals, and the beginnings of dog training—all while making the best kinds of friends—those who care about animals! There are 10 sessions available, each running Monday through Friday. Enroll on our website, available at this link.
spcaLA Pet Adoption Day, Saturday, June 6, 10AM–4PM, spcaLA P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village & Education Center, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach
spcaLA’s biggest pet adoption event of the year will feature meet and greets with Heidi and Frank of 95.5 KLOS and with KABC’s Drive Home’s Jillian Barberi and John Phillips, vendor booths, adoption specials, giveaways, family fun and possible your future best friend!
Long Beach Animal Care Services Fund-Raiser, Thursday, May 7, 11AM–10PM, Veggie Grill, 6451 E. PCH, Long Beach
Vegetables are good for you, and on May 7, they’ll be even better for pets. The veggie grill has the tastiest meat products that never were—meat, that is—and at this fund-raiser, 50 percent of your order will go toward the animals at our shelter. Print out or mention the flyer below.
spcaLA May Foster Class, Saturday, May 16, 10AM–noon, P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village and Education Center, 7700 Spring St., Long Beach
spcaLA needs foster parents for pets of all ages and needs. Want to help? Submit the application available on our web page and attend a foster class. We provide all the supplies, and you provide the home and the TLC.