HELENA — Some bunny or a few rabbits from the feral Rodney Street rabbit colony now have a new place to call home.
“I just want to be the difference,” Lily Vickers with Rodney Rabbit Rescue shared.
The Rodney Street rabbits have been a problem for over a decade, and as their populations have grown, so have the community's concerns.
That’s where Carroll College anthrozoology student Vickers hopped in to help.
“I love rabbits, and I keep seeing them out on the streets, and I am like, they shouldn’t be there,” Vickers said.
Over the past few months, volunteers have trapped over twenty rabbits, but where do they go? That’s where the Last Best Place for Animals leaped in to provide a space for the animals to be studied and eventually adopted out.
Vickers noted, “We are going to go outside, and there are two barn doors; open those up, and put a big outside area with a fencing area so they cannot get out.”
Apex Animal Hospital has provided discounted spays and neuters for the program, but even still, each rabbit costs over three hundred dollars to maintain.
“With this group, we had so many males, we are fixing all of them first and then getting to the females,” Vickers said.
With rabbits now being able to find a forever home, Rodney Rabbit Rescue is offering mandatory rabbit care classes with every adoption, so the cycle of rabbit colonies does not continue.
Vickers said, “I have a spreadsheet, and I have been sorting them by adoptable and not adoptable, and a majority of these rabbits are adoptable.”
Rodney Rabbit Rescue is officially a non-profit and is funded by donations, and is working on applying for various grants.
If you are interested in helping, you can visit this link to donate, volunteer, or even adopt a rabbit.
