Children, tired of changing the litterbox, tired of daily feeding, begin to neglect this living creature and wish instead for a stuffed toy with no needs at all. Parents sometimes fill the void and attend to the bunny s most basic needs, often not out of genuine love, but out of guilt or worse yet, resentment. Soon, the bunny grows ill from lack of proper care, and requires medical attention. The cute stuffed bunny suddenly isn t so cute anymore. Weighing the prospective vet bill against the perceived value of a now unwanted bunny, many people ignore the symptoms of illness or hope they will go away on their own.
Bunnies are delicate creatures.
It doesn t take much and soon the bunny is gone. If the bunny doesn t die, the parents soon tire of the work involved in maintaining its life. One weekend, deciding a dog or a cat might make a better pet, they take the bunny to the local shelter and leave him there thinking it will be easy for him to find a new home. Too often, shelters are not equipped to handle rabbits and fail to give them the proper care. Mixed in a room filled with barking dogs and mewing cats, the stress grows too great for a bunny s sensitive nerves and they often fall ill.