Rabbit and Pocket Pet Adoptions

As we start the new Century, please take time to consider that rabbits and small pets die daily because there are too few "forever homes" to accommodate them all. 

Are you trying to find a new home for a rabbit? Please follow this link for advice on placing your rabbit on your own.

Please think about the unwanted rabbits already in the world before you decide to breed more just "to show the kids" or to "make one just like this one". Rabbits can live to be over 10 years old. Sadly, many pet rabbits don't live to see a year old! They are discarded at 8-12 months old when the family gets tired of them. (This is the average age of rabbits needing in here) Time is running out on a minute by minute basis for rabbits in shelters, in homes where they are unwanted, on the streets, etc. Why are there unwanted rabbits in need of rescue? Even small pets like hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, chinchillas, and misc, are in need of new homes frequently, as shown by the following statistics.

Here is the main breakdown showing how many pets we were asked to help each month in 2003! Click on the blue links to see the detailed totals for how many of each were able to come in, how many were adopted out by the rescue, and how many calls or e-mails we received for each type for the entire year.

Monthly stats for 2003!

Pet Type	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Rabbit	47	69	135*	37	32	48	96	47	51	30	11	36
Hamster	15	0	14	1	0	7	14	11	28	0	6	6
Guinea pig	4	3	4	1	0	0	4	22	2	0	4	6
Rat	12	7	0	2	13	2	14	12	1	20	17	7
Chinchilla	1	0	0	1	1	4	4	0	0	0	0	9
Others	14	0	4	33	5	3	1	5	9	10	2	4

*100 rabbits in March are from one person, the person started out with 2 mixed breed rabbits and ended up with 100 before getting sick and entering a hospital. His family called for help.*

Those above numbers mean that 639 rabbits, 90 hamsters, 46 guinea pigs, 115 rats, 19 chinchillas, 90 others have needed new homes for various reasons from Jan 1, 2003 through Dec 31, 2003. Their owners called or emailed to ask for assistance in placing them!  This count includes the multiple unwanted pets owned by the same families-often they were born to incorrectly sexed parents as a surprise litter, or worse, these are babies born because the parents were allowed to breed to "make more like them" or "have some cute babies" without thinking ahead. There are so many unwanted mixed breed or "pet quality" animals in the world already that even cute baby rabbits don't find good homes easily. When they realized how hard it was to place even baby animals in good homes, they called me to help.

Remember, although this count is high, it's only the pets *we* were asked to take. It does not include the pets who were turned over to animal shelters, needed to get into other rescues, given away for free in the paper, dumped at pet stores, or turned loose to fend for themselves that we were not directly asked to help!

The total number of pets needing in is simply the count of how many were needing in, NOT how many we were able to take in!!! We wish we could have helped them all! Look at the ratio of just rabbits needing in compared to the number of rabbits adopted and you can see how a no-kill rescuer would quickly become overcrowded if we took in every rabbit who needed rescuing. 

Here are the unwanted rabbit statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my rabbit" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=257

Total number of unwanted rabbits from those calls since 1/01/2003=639 (One person had allowed their rabbits to keep breeding and had 24 they needed to place, another had 100 from accidental breeding! Both people started out with *2* rabbits! They did not know how to properly sex their rabbits and were not set up to separate sexes once they did find out!)

Total number of rabbits we have placed since 1/01/03=13 (A pair were returned)

Total number of rabbits we have been able to take since 1/01/03=14

On 1/01/99, we began to keep official track of the unwanted rabbits we were asked to help . Total number of unwanted rabbits from 1/01/99 to 12/31/02=1470 (That averages to be 490 per year that we get asked to take!)

Total number of rabbits we placed in 1999=26 Total number of rabbits we  placed in 2000=23 Total number of rabbits placed in 2001=23 Total number of rabbits we placed in 2002=13 (We were able to take 27 rabbits into the rescue in 1999, 34 rabbits in 2000 and 28 in 2001, 15 in 2002)

Here are the unwanted hamster statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my hamster" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=18

Total number of unwanted hamster from those calls since 1/01/2003=96

Total number of hamsters we have placed since 1/01/03=14

Total number of hamsters we have been able to take since 1/01/03= 21 (includes 12 babies born)

Here are the unwanted rat statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my rat" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=28

Total number of unwanted rats from those calls since 1/01/2003=117

Total number of rats we have placed since 1/01/03= 2

Total number of rats we have been able to take since 1/01/03= 6 (Currently we have only 1 rat foster home! If you would like to help by providing temporary foster care, please let me know!)

Here are the unwanted guinea pig statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my guinea pig" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=16

Total number of unwanted guinea pigs from those calls since 1/01/2003=46

Total number of guinea pigs we have placed since 1/01/03=1

Total number of guinea pigs we have been able to take since 1/01/03=0 (Currently there are no guinea pig foster homes! If you would like to help, please let me know!)

Here are the unwanted chinchilla statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my chinchilla" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=8

Total number of unwanted chinchillas from those calls since 1/01/2003= 19

Total number of chinchillas we have placed since 1/01/03= 7 (4 were taken in by another rescuer)

Total number of chinchillas we have been able to take since 1/01/03=5 (Currently there are no chinchilla foster homes! If you would like to help, please let me know!)

Here are the unwanted misc statistics for 2003 year so far.

"Can't keep my other" calls/e-mails we have received since 1/01/2003=23

Total number of unwanted others from those calls since 1/01/2003= 90
(4 kittens, 40 mice, 2 lovebirds, 1 dog, etc...)

Total number of others we have placed since 1/01/03= 7

Total number of others we have been able to take since 1/01/03= 7 (4 long haired kittens taken in on 1/6/03, 1 short haired kitten taken in on 7/10/03, 2 long haired kittens taken in on 11/8/03, plus 26 baby mice from two different households were added to the website but not taken officially into the foster program. we help by screening and referring people seeking mice to the people with mice. If you can foster mice, we need foster homes! we have no one available to foster mice currently!)

Thank you for looking at these statistics and for caring what happens to rabbits and small animals. These pets are so often "forgotten" at animal shelters because people feel they are "not as important" as dogs or cats.

Copyright by Angela Carrigan 2003. Please do not use these statistics without express written permission from me. I am happy to give permission, but you must ask first. You are welcome to link to these stats without permission. If you would like to copy and use these stats in any way other than a direct link, you must e-mail me. (A direct means you link to this page, you may not cut and paste this onto your own website!)