Months back my student employee (college aged) adopted a bunny because it was cute, cuddly, and a girl magnet. Since he's not the most responsible people in the world, I was worried about the bunny and kept giving him bunny advice based on my years of bunny raising.

Today he was asking how well the rabbit would do if he were to release it into "the wild." I told him that it was pretty much a death sentence and gave him contact information for the House Rabbit Rescue Network and local shelters. He just came by and told me he actually let her go yesterday into the woods (complete with coyotes, owls, and the whole range of hungry predators) since he didn't know that a *?&% housepet wouldn't do perfectly well when thrown into the wild. I'm an angry individual when it comes to animals so he has now been thoroughly told off concerning throwing away animal lives and abandoning pets. He's going to the woods to look for it but I feel like the little thing's doomed. I feel so sad for the bunny! :cry: Does a domestic rabbit stand any chance in the wild?

:-( poor bunny. It probably could make it through the night ok, but if he doesn't find it, the bunny is ill equipped to evade predators for long, and definitely won't make it through harsh elements or find water very easily :-( I hope he finds it!!!

Unfortunately, unless the little guy is lucky, I think death sentence is all too accurate. I hope the idiot finds him in time.

what an idiot. Can you fire him?

wow, your employee has rocks for brains. that's so sad. the bunny shelter i volunteer for has rescued a few bunnies that have been set free in parks and forests, so i would say that the bunny has a chance if someone finds it soon enough. maybe call the bunny shelter and tell them there was a domestic rabbit spotted in the location where he let it go, and maybe they have some trained volunteers they could send out to look for it.

i hope everything turns out okay!!!

In elementary school, we had a class rabbit who I bonded with very closely. One day, a little boy decided it would be a good idea to take her out to play during recess, and she ran away.
Even at the age of 7 i knew that her odds were not very good out there on her own- and i mourned the loss.
But then she started making appearances, hopping out of the bushes during lunch to munch on some decorative plants, etc. She was around for at least two years after that, and seemed to be doing very well. (I know it was her and not a wild rabbit because we were in Hawaii and there are no wild rabbits there).
I hope the same for your employee's bunny if she is not found.

The idiot is off looking for his bunny now but I have now found out that he dumped her in the woods right off a major roadway in Salem. I don't know which road yet but I doubt he picked a charming back woods road. Grrrrr! I'm so mad at him! I told him when he adopted the rabbit that he needed to ask me if he had any questions or problems.
Incidentally, the girl who he'd been hitting on publicly chewed him out when she found out that he'd abandoned his rabbit and she's telling everyone (all her friends who he also tries to hit on) how he abandoned a poor, defenseless bunny. I'm glad to see a student here who feels as outraged as I do!
Thanks for the bunny hope, VioletPickles, I'll hold out some hope for Nips until I hear back from the idiot tomorrow.
Alfiedog: He's not working for me for the summer (he works for housekeeping now) but I believe I'm going to exercise my perogative to not take him back him back in the fall as he also has a problem with retaining consciousness when he's in charge of the library.

i was eating at a (veg*n) restaurant once, and i overheard a girl talking about a very young bunny that she'd "saved" from a store. she said that it was sick and she didn't think it would live very long because in the past she'd had one that small and it didn't live very long. she talked about having "freed" rabbits she'd gotten in the past in a foresty area, and that was what she said she'd do if that one survived. :furious:

it was terribly frustrating. i'm too shy to say anything, and it probably wouldn't have gone very well if i had, so i kept quiet. :(

i know there were a whole bunch of bunnies left in a park around here about a year ago. a rabbit rescue rounded many of them up, but i think most were dead within a week or two.

my sister used to frequently leave the rabbits' door unlocked. her rabbit escaped into the canyon multiple times, and always came back in a day or two . . . except the last time.