Apologies for delayed update due to illness. In January, Beloved Rabbits took in 9 surrendered bunnies, saw 12 hop off to new homes and had 37 new additions to our rehoming waiting list. It's not uncommon for this to be a quieter time of year in terms of adoptions so we expected movement to be a bit slower in the rescue.
This month we would like to touch on the pressure on our foster system - we are always seeking indoor and outdoor foster carers to enable us to take in more bunnies in need, and our foster carers are invaluable when it comes to socialising the bunnies, taking care of any special/medical needs and also providing the day to day care required. At the moment we are finding it a struggle to recruit as people feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis are reluctant (understandably) to take on the financial commitment of fostering, even despite this only applying to food and petrol as we cover all other costs involved, vet care, etc.
We're also experiencing a higher volume of rabbits needing to overcome health issues prior to adoption due to the rabbit welfare crisis, and this causes its own issues as we have a limited number of very experienced foster carers. This has also been really difficult for our foster carers (both old and new) to deal with as naturally it's hard to see the bunnies in that state. Newer foster carers can be put off by the higher level of care required in most cases these days, which is just one of the challenges the Management team are working to overcome.
On a positive note, we've recently enjoyed good success in Bonding Bootcamp with two very smooth sailing quad bonds and multiple successful group or pair bonds! This is our most popular service and we are pleased to be able to offer it as bonding is essential to rabbit welfare.