Every year the Guelph Humane Society provides care and shelter for approximately 3,000 homeless, stray, injured, orphaned, abandoned and abused animals throughout Guelph and Wellington County. This includes cats, dogs, wild animals, farm animals, but in 2021, we are finding more domestic rabbits in need of our help than ever before.
So far in 2021, over 140 domestic rabbits have come into our care here at GHS – this is more than 2x as many rabbits that came into our care in all of 2020! With so many bunnies in need of our help, we are incredibly thankful for our new dedicated, Small Animal Adoption room and our Small Animal Socializer volunteers who come in every day to give the small animals in our care the love they deserve while they await their happy tail.
Kelly is one of our dedicated Small Animal Socializer volunteers, having just joined our team this past April as a Wildlife Driving volunteer. Kelly now comes into the shelter each week to help out the domestic rabbits in our care while the wild rabbits hide away to keep warm over the winter months! While at the shelter each week, Kelly spends time socializing with our rabbits in their own dedicated runs, but out of cage time is extremely important for rabbits, so Kelly and our other Small Animal Socializers set up exercise pens to give our bunnies, like Skip (pictured), space to roam and stretch their legs beyond their run.
Being a Small Animal Socializer volunteer requires some knowledge of small animal care and can involve a bit of patience as a shy, timid bunny learns to trust human affection. And while we have many rabbits currently in our care looking for their Happy Tail, we’re lucky to have dedicated volunteers like Kelly who come in each day to give them plenty of love, but also some tasty, veggie treats while they await their new family.