Rehoming Rabbits: Why 'Saving' A Rabbit Can't Guarantee Immediate Rescue Space
We know people act with the best intentions when they see a rabbit in need. This blog isn’t about discouraging kindness, it’s about explaining why rescues have to prioritise limited spaces in a way that helps the greatest number of rabbits.
If you accept rabbits from their owner, you become responsible for them in law, and that does not move them to the front of our list. If you have already taken rabbits in and now need help, we can still support you, including a free welfare assessment and help finding them a permanent home.
Rehoming is one of the most challenging parts of rescue work. At Beloved Rabbits, we regularly have a waiting list of more than 50 applicants involving over 100 rabbits.
Every rabbit is assessed individually and prioritised according to welfare need. However, because we almost always operate at full capacity, even the most urgent cases often have to wait days or weeks before we have the physical space to admit them. A space becomes available only when a rabbit already in our care is adopted, and we hold no accommodation back in reserve.
Recently, we’ve seen an increase in applications from people saying they’ve “found a stray” or that a rabbit has been “abandoned”. However, the information provided often shows that the situation is actually quite different.
In many cases, someone has become aware of rabbits living in what they describe as poor or negligent conditions. The previous owner has agreed for the rabbits to be taken, and the applicant has brought them home before contacting us, expecting that Beloved Rabbits will then be able to admit them immediately.
A genuine stray is a different matter. A rabbit found loose outdoors with no known owner should be reported to the Scottish SPCA on 03000 999 999, who can record the find and begin tracing an owner.
Why Is This A Problem?
We understand why people want to help. Seeing rabbits in poor conditions is upsetting, and taking them away can feel like the right thing to do.
However, once someone accepts the rabbits into their care with the owner’s consent, they become the rabbits’ new owner and take on responsibility in law for meeting their welfare needs. Under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, that responsibility covers a suitable environment and a suitable diet, the ability to behave normally, appropriate company, and protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease. It applies from the point the rabbits come home with you, whether or not a rescue place is available. If they decide they cannot keep them, the rabbits will need to join our waiting list like any other rehoming request.
Importantly, we have to prioritise cases based on the rabbits’ current circumstances, not the conditions they have already been rescued from. If the rabbits are now safe, housed appropriately and having their needs met, they are no longer in the same level of immediate welfare risk as rabbits who remain in neglectful situations.
Allowing people to bypass the waiting list in these circumstances would be unfair to the many owners who have followed the correct process and to the rabbits still waiting in genuinely urgent situations. Every space we offer to one rabbit is a space that cannot be offered to another, and with our rescue operating at capacity, these decisions have a real impact.
Unfortunately, when we explain this, we’re sometimes met with frustration or disappointment, and occasionally we’re told that if we cannot admit the rabbits immediately, any future welfare concerns will be our fault.
We appreciate that this comes from people wanting the best for the rabbits. However, rescues cannot create space that doesn’t exist. Our volunteers already make difficult decisions every day about which rabbits can be helped first, and those decisions must always be based on welfare need and the resources available.
What's The Alternative?
If you’re concerned about a rabbit and believe it needs to leave its current home, please only take it into your own care if you’re prepared to keep it until a longer-term solution can be found, without expecting that a rescue will be able to admit it straight away.
Alternatively, if it is safe and appropriate to do so, encourage the current owner to contact us directly. This allows us to assess the rabbits while they remain in their current home, offer advice or support where possible, and prioritise their place on our waiting list based on their actual circumstances. Sometimes the support we can offer means the rabbits do not need to leave their home at all.
Whatever the situation, we ask members of the public to remember that rescues rarely have empty accommodation waiting to be filled. Behind every application is another rabbit needing help, and many of those situations are equally distressing. Our volunteers work hard to support as many rabbits as possible, as quickly and fairly as we can.
What Can Beloved Rabbits Offer?
If you’ve already taken in a rabbit and now need help finding them a permanent home, we’re still here to support you.
We can arrange a free welfare assessment to check the rabbit’s health, provide guidance and advice, and discuss the options available. Where appropriate, we can also advertise the rabbit on our adoption pages while they remain in your care, helping to find them a suitable new home. If they need nail trimming or grooming, we can provide this free of charge during the appointment.
We’ll also keep in touch afterwards, offering ongoing advice and support while we work together towards the best outcome for the rabbits.
How You Can Help Save A Rabbit
What limits us is space, and the funding that keeps each space open. If you want to help the rabbits on our waiting list, the most useful thing you can do is help us open up another place.
Our Save A Rabbit campaign funds that work. It covers veterinary treatment, neutering, and the cost of keeping a rabbit fed and housed with us until they are adopted.
Fostering creates the space itself. Foster carers open their home to a rabbit until we find their family, and every rabbit in foster care is a rabbit we have been able to admit without waiting for a pen to come free. It is a commitment of both time and money, because carers provide the daily care and meet the day-to-day cost of food and bedding, whilst we continue to cover veterinary treatment and stay in touch throughout. We will talk all of this through with you before any rabbit comes to stay.
Fostering is one of several ways to help. Beloved Rabbits is run by our people, from hands-on rabbit care and bonding at The Hoppy Hub in Kirkintilloch, to welfare checks, telling our rabbits’ stories on social media, and places on our management committee and Board of Trustees. Some roles are based at the centre and others can be done from home.
You can read the full list at belovedrabbits.org/volunteer, where each role sets out what it involves, the age requirements and the commitment we ask for. If you are not sure where you would fit, get in touch and we will talk it through with you.
Apply to our waiting list | Book a free welfare assessment | Volunteer with us | Support Save A Rabbit
