EASTER IS A BAD HARE DAY

CONTACT:   Connie Onstad
      Telephone: 651-649-4587
      http://www.rabbithome.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Easter is a Bad Hare Day

Minneapolis, MN – March 26, 2000 - Each year thousands of parents buy their child an Easter Bunny" for the spring holiday. This year a new web site, Rabbithome.com has declared that Easter is a Bad Hare Day" to discourage impulse buying of live rabbits as gifts for children.
The campaign is the pet project of Connie Onstad of Minnesota who owns four house rabbits and started Rabbithome.com to raise public awareness about buying Easter rabbits. According to Onstad, the number of discarded Easter pets within six months of purchase maybe as high as 75% or more. The message from the Easter is a Bad Hare Day" poster suggests a plush stuffed toy is a better choice for an Easter gift. It is a bad hare day because those unwanted rabbits can overwhelm a local animal rescue facility within a couple of months after Easter. Most rabbits without hope of adoption are destroyed. Also, many people will release their pet rabbit into the wild thinking it can fend for itself. Unfortunately, this is especially cruel for a domesticated rabbit because they are helpless on their own and prey for everything including owls, dogs, cats and coyotes."    
Rabbithome.com offers several web pages of free information on care for pet house rabbits such as the Hare Raising" page. Rabbits can be litter box trained like a cat, are entertaining and affectionate and can live up to 15 years old as a house rabbit," according to Onstad whose own rabbits roam the house with supervision. However, without proper care and attention, a cute bunny, particularly a male, can turn into a furniture gnawing, wire chewing, spraying and kicking rascally rabbit. They can become too much for a small child to handle especially the larger breeds."
Easter is a Bad Hare Day" full color posters in an 11"x 17" door size are available not only to pet rescue organizations, but also to individuals. The cost for each poster is $5.00 including postage. The poster features Groucho" a white mini-lop rabbit with black moustache markings. Groucho was an Easter gift to Onstad and purchased from a pet store selling bunnies three weeks before they should be separated from their mother. Bunnies should not be separated before normally eight weeks. He could fit in my hand and I didnt think he would survive. He is now a very affectionate pet who is litter box trained and has bonded with my calico cat."
For more information on pet house rabbits hop to www.rabbithome.com on the internet. The site includes a page where you can link to purchase books on rabbit care and stuffed rabbit toys for Easter gifts.
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