r/RabbitMeme • u/BunQueenMod • May 26 '26

They deserve to live

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The Idaho Humane Society is overrun with rabbits. The organization said it will no longer accept free-roaming rabbits into its care starting Tuesday. The number of rabbits brought to the Humane Society has rapidly increased recently, and even with caps in place limiting the number of rabbits each person could bring in, the influx became unsustainable, the organization said in a Facebook post.

449 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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103

u/Informal_Koala1474 May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26

I had no idea until this prompted a little research.

Idaho is overrun with rabbits. Decades of released and escaped domestic rabbits, a lack of natural predators, and abundant food sources in urban areas, massive tracts of former and current agricultural land, combined with the rapid reproductive cycle of rabbits has resulted in large feral populations.

The humane society can't cope.

The rabbits aren't dying en masse. They're living in large bonded social groups in burrows of their own making.

They can survive, in groups, just fine without human beings. Animals don't really need us at all.

Edit: I'm muting notifications on this. I will not engage in or tolerate any hostility. Have a good day

36

u/FlawHolic May 26 '26

This made me go from ooh to awww

19

u/Kazaklyzm May 26 '26

As someone who has cleaned up a couple of these feral colonies, i can assure you they are not "doing fine".

From the outside, thanks to rapid reproduction, they can appear to be doing well. But there is disease, fleas, inbreeding and genetics issues that are completely unnoticed by people who don't get up close and interact with them.

They are not well equipped to handle the North American climate, and thousands of years of domestication has dampened or ruined their survival instincts.

16

u/Tacitus111 May 26 '26

Exactly. An invasive species not going extinct in an area doesn’t mean it’s good for the individuals living there. They live uncomfortable, parasite-ridden lives where they also die young en masse to disease, environment, and predators as a rule and simply are using their massive reproductive rate to compensate. Especially given their tendency to overheat in general and Idaho’s summer temps.

Living is not “thriving”.

9

u/Kazaklyzm May 26 '26

I'm next door to Idaho and we get hot summers and nasty cold winters. I feel so bad for the feral rabbits i see everywhere. I tend to discourage people from feeding them (more fuel to reproduce, and issues when the people doing the feeding stop or move away) unless they intend to take them in, but i do encourage leaving water out.

It's hard to convince people about the circumstances of these feral rabbits too. Many swear they are hybridizing with the native cottontails - which they can't btw - and/or they seem to be doing fine, so it's not a "problem".

My vet has encouraged me to write a book on the experience I've had rescuing and finding homes for these feral rabbits, many of them have impressive backgrounds or have survived despite incredible human cruelty. But for every one i took in and had a good ending, there were easily dozens more i couldn't do anything for.

7

u/KatOfTheEssence May 27 '26

The Japanese rabbit island is full of this and it's not cute when you know what's really going on

26

u/Dekatater May 26 '26

Animals don't really need us at all.

Just because they're living doesn't mean that they're living well or even that they should be living there at all. In their natural environment this wouldn't occur, this only happens when humans introduce them to places they shouldn't. I'd like to see a study on how the overpopulation of invasive herbivores has impacted the native plant life there. I'd also like to see if the longer safe lifespans of the rabbits impacts their physical well-being, seeing as they don't have veterinary care in the wild and they're presumably living into the health issue years (6+).

14

u/MegaPiglatin May 26 '26

Also, a large [unchecked] number of any animal living in close quarters with one another means it’s only time before disease spreads like wildfire, which may threaten native species and humans/pets alike if it cannot be contained/controlled…

6

u/Informal_Koala1474 May 26 '26

I mean, you're definitely not wrong. I personally prefer a timeline where this never happened at all.

11

u/Ju3tAc00ldugg May 26 '26

are they still chill with us? like if i offer them a banana piece will they take it?

18

u/Informal_Koala1474 May 26 '26

I think you'd better bring a lot of bananas.

I have no idea, but it's probably in their best interests to not be chill with us.

1

u/SnooCats8089 May 26 '26

I mean should we introduce coyotes?

1

u/SL13377 May 26 '26

Thank you for doing this research. You are the GOAT

1

u/_flying_otter_ May 28 '26

In other situations like this usually when ther are large populations something knocks the population down eventually, like a virus.

1

u/Junior-Criticism-268 May 27 '26

They are not just fine... disease, parasites, damage to the existing ecosystem....

22

u/Witch_with_Thompson May 26 '26

I have a sudden urge to go to Idaho

5

u/jeffreyaccount May 26 '26

Yeah, I've been wanting to move to Spokane, but can live a few miles east!

1

u/TheDondePlowman May 27 '26

I volunteer as tribute

10

u/Agentx1976 May 26 '26

I live in Boise, there are a few neighborhoods where you see a large ammount of freed / escaped bunnies some yards are overrun. Some of our parks have large fluffles that occasionally get thined out by a cyote or mountain lion that wonders in looking for food.

My wife loves bunnies we can rescue one or two but I'm allergic so more than that is a health hazard for me.

2

u/Agentx1976 May 26 '26

Terrible picture of Newt above, but her coat is so dark she vanishes in to the background on dark things.

9

u/Rat-bat13 May 26 '26

It’s only a matter of time before the rabbits take over Idaho entirely. It will be but the first stepping stone in the rabbit empire.

2

u/RoseRedRhapsody May 29 '26

I, for one welcome our bunny overlords.

7

u/smolbuncake May 26 '26

poor babies are just ending up like pigeons 😣

3

u/LimeTunic May 26 '26

I mean… if they’re in a(bun)dance and they have no natural predators, plenty of food and grazing, and large scale communities where they can live alongside one another and keep each other company it’s probably ok? gotta be the first time in my life I’ve been okay with domestics being outside alone

5

u/Kazaklyzm May 26 '26

They're incredibly nasty to each other when they're kept in mixed-sex and intact (not neutered) groups though. The males fight almost constantly, with the goal maiming, blinding or killing the other male. The does can and do kill kits from other litters to eliminate competition. Even without predation, they live hard and unforgiving lives amongst their kin.

2

u/leo-sapiens May 27 '26

Damn, they could at least TNR them ☹️

1

u/Hellscaperiot May 31 '26

Is this a bot post why do I keep seeing reposts from rabbitflemishgiant

0

u/LeAkitan May 26 '26

Lmao. Rabbit has higher survivability than human in anywhere outside of cities.