https://www.friendsofhrn.org/product-page/a-plush-is-enough

Contact: Rachel Minnie, rachel@rabbitnetwork.org

This Easter, House Rabbit Network launches a new campaign, A Plush Is Enough, to bring awareness to the realities of pet rabbit ownership and the problem of rabbit overpopulation in shelters. For a $20 donation (plus $6 shipping), a donor can virtually adopt a rabbit and receive a 7″ plush rabbit with a House Rabbit Network bandana as well as a printable adoption certificate. Orders are being taken on our member website, www.friendsofhrn.org, from now until the end of March. Plushies will be received in time for Easter gifting.

Every year, thousands of rabbits are purchased as Easter gifts by well-intentioned, yet ill-informed people. While some of them are loved, lifelong family pets, the majority are rehomed or, worse, put outside, where they won’t survive. Rabbits make wonderful pets, if one has the right expectations. Rabbits can be skittish, aggressive of their food and space, and panicky when held. They chew, dig, and require specialized veterinary care, including an expensive spay/neuter surgery.

The baby bunny someone purchases on a whim at a pet store won’t always be a baby. And when that rabbit hits adolescence and begins exhibiting unwanted and unexpected behavior, such as spraying, lunging, and biting, the rabbit is rehomed. Rabbits are the third-most euthanized pet in the United States. And when animal shelters can take them, they can stay in foster care for sometimes years, waiting for a forever home and getting passed over for the baby bunnies in pet stores and sold by backyard breeders.

Funds raised from the A Plush Is Enough campaign go toward spaying and neutering the hundreds of rabbits taken in by House Rabbit Network, a 501(c)3 charity based in Woburn, MA, but serving the entire New England area. This spring, we are encouraging people to virtually adopt a plush bunny rather than contributing to the homeless rabbit population. A Plush Is Enough!