Long Island Rabbit Rescue rehomes abandoned pet bunnies
Faline and Freya are sisters from a litter born to a rescued rabbit in the care of Long Island Rabbit Rescue. Credit: Katie Scarr
When her family decided to adopt a rabbit two years ago, JoAnna Nicholson went online and found Ru, a mostly gray Lionhead rabbit, through Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group.
“Every rabbit’s personality is different, but Ru is a combination of cat and dog,” said Nicholson, 49, an attorney who lives in Amityville. “She’ll come and seek me out for pats and just hanging out. But when she’s had enough, she becomes very aloof, like a cat, and will go and do her thing and wants nothing to do with me.”
Founded by Mary Ann Maier and Nancy Schreiber in 2012, Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group is dedicated to rescuing rabbits on the Island.
Maier got involved with bunny rescue 14 years earlier, when she found a domestic rabbit hopping around her Sea Cliff neighborhood and brought it indoors. With its smooth fur and a round shape, the rabbit looked different from the wild cottontails she was accustomed to seeing. After looking online, she contacted Rabbit Rescue and Rehab in Bronxville, in Westchester County, a local chapter of House Rabbit Society, a national rabbit rescue and education organization, which gave her advice on caring for the rabbit.
“I, of course, fell in love with him,” said Maier, 56, an interior decorator.
Mary Ann Maier of Sea Cliff co-founded the Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group in 2012. Credit: Katie Scarr
Once she realized he got along with her cats, Maier kept the rabbit, naming him Beezle.
Before long, Maier was volunteering for Rabbit Rescue and Rehab, learning about rabbit care and fostering rabbits. Around that time — in the early 2000s — the internet helped increase awareness about abandoned domestic rabbits on Long Island, Maier said. There were a few organizations on Long Island that cared for injured wild rabbits, like Volunteers for Wildlife, but none were involved with pet rabbit rescue and adoption.
Meanwhile, Schreiber, 70, an anesthesiologist who lives in New Hyde Park, learned about Maier’s efforts to save abandoned rabbits through a flyer at Catnip & Carrots, a veterinary hospital in New Hyde Park. Schreiber started volunteering with Maier — and adopted a pair of rabbits.
“I started fostering in my home, because we did a big rescue early on in Massapequa,” Schreiber said, noting that they caught 15 rabbits in 2006 that had been dumped by someone who was breeding them in a backyard there.
‘100 calls a month’
From there, they started the organization and, through word-of-mouth, started getting calls almost immediately. The rabbit rescue business has been steady, even growing since they incorporated as a nonprofit in 2012 and created a website.
Some of the bunnies Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group has cared for and found homes for. Credit: Katie Scarr
“We probably get 100 calls a month to take rabbits,” Schreiber said. “Either people who don’t want them anymore or people who have rabbits dumped on them, or they find a stray. We adopt out, at best, six per month, so the odds are not in their favor.”
Unlike most rescue organizations, Long Island Rabbit Rescue does not have a physical shelter.
“We are a network of foster homes around Long Island,” said Maier of the five primary private homes in Sea Cliff, Plainview, Great Neck, Ridge and Huntington where volunteers regularly house at least five rabbits each, and about two dozen other homes where people foster them for shorter periods.
Most animal shelters are so overburdened with dogs and cats, they don’t have the resources to care for rabbits, Maier said.
“They don’t have the space or the staff to care for the special needs that rabbits have: the special housing considerations, the diet and also the special screening when they need to be rehomed,” she explained.
Long Island Rabbit Rescue screens and educates prospective owners about rabbit care to ensure that they’ll be kept indoors, for example.
With adoption, you get full support, Schreiber added.
“You call with an emergency, we’ll try to troubleshoot it to avoid the vet,” she said.
A volunteer with Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group coaxes an abandoned domestic rabbit out of hiding in Massapequa. Credit: Denise Bertolotti
People who regularly spot rabbits around Long Island might be unaware of the differences between domestic rabbits, which are bred as pets, and cottontails, which are native to North America.
Pet rabbits don’t have the survival instincts of wild rabbits, notes Maier.
“That’s why we have a hard and fast rule that our rabbits have to be kept inside 24/7,” Maier said. “Outdoors they’re in a lot of danger from predators, heatstroke and parasites, like maggots.”
Rescued pet rabbits live in large dog crates or pens to keep them safe from roaming around the house when owners aren’t home. Once they’re spayed or neutered, they typically relieve themselves in hay-filled litter boxes.
“We recommend they spend a certain amount of hours in their enclosure, close to their food, their toys, their litter box, their water bowl, so they can nap, have a snack throughout the day,” Maier said.
Pet rabbits should also have access to a bunny-proofed room with a rug for traction and where cords and wires are safely out of reach.
“They make good pets for the right person — the person who’s done their homework and has their expectations managed,” Maier said.
Not good Easter gifts
Jackson Shaw with Ru, a bunny that was rescued by the Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group. Credit: JoAnna Nicholson
In addition to rescuing, fostering and rehoming rabbits, Long Island Rabbit Rescue is an educational resource.
“If there was enough education on rabbit care, veterinary costs and rabbit longevity, there wouldn’t be such a great need for rescue,” Maier said, adding that pet rabbits are generally best in homes with children over the age of 12 or 13.
According to Roy Gross, chief of department for the Suffolk SPCA, rabbits should never be gifted to anyone. “Eighty percent of rabbits purchased on Easter are abandoned,” he said.
Rabbits need a calm environment and specialized medical care, rescuers say.
Adopting Ru when her son, Jackson, was 8 proved a learning experience for the family and taught her son patience, notes Nicholson. “It was a great time for him. She’s been a really calming influence in the house,” Nicholson said, adding, “It’s not for everybody.”
Rabbits are prey animals whose survival depends on not appearing weak to predators.
“Every ache, every pain, every problem: They’re going to try to mask,” Maier said.
Consequently, by the time you realize a rabbit is sick — they’re not eating or they’re hiding or holding their bodies in a peculiar manner — it probably needs immediate medical treatment.
And unlike dogs, rabbits won’t usually come bounding over to humans for affection; rabbits are easily stressed by fluctuations in noise levels, a common feature of households with kids.
“They like steady. They like calm. They like to live in an environment where they can have expectations and not be frightened by noises and sudden changes in the energy level of the house,” Maier said.
Focus on education
Domestic rabbits like Ravi have been bred as pets and aren't suited for the wild. Credit: Katie Scarr
When she moved back to Long Island five years ago, Katie Scarr, an unabashed rabbit lover, found Long Island Rabbit Rescue online and reached out to Maier to see how she could help. Now, Scarr volunteers weekly, cleaning and caring for fostered rabbits, working on the website and taking photos of adoptable rabbits.
In 2022, Scarr notes, the group got 1,019 calls about rehoming rabbits, the majority from Long Island and the rest from New York City. In 2018, that number was just about 700.
“The numbers have gotten worse, and it’s possible that people just are more aware of how we can help people rehome their rabbits,” said Scarr, 34, a freelance photographer who lives in Plainview.
Now fostering three rabbits, in addition to her own five, Scarr hopes the New York State ban on pet stores selling dogs, cats and rabbits that goes into effect next year will help.
“I think it’ll hopefully get better just because access to purchasing rabbits on a whim isn’t going to be as accessible,” Scarr said. “But we’re also doing a lot of education, doing some library and other events just to bring awareness that rabbits aren’t good pets for children.”
Volunteer Lauren Eddings carries two of the six rabbits she and other volunteers rescued in Baldwin several years ago. Credit: Julie Zukoff
The organization provides free medical care, food, cages and other equipment to people who foster them. There is a $150 fee for adoption, before which rabbits are neutered or spayed.
In its mission to rescue and rehome rabbits, the organization also has run educational programs. Its most powerful outreach is through social media — Facebook, Instagram and YouTube — and its website.
In 2010, when his rabbit Luci was suffering from an unknown condition that made it look as if she was choking, Mark Hagan happened to meet Maier at a local pub. She helped him get the right care for his rabbit, which needed a different diet.
To express his gratitude, Hagan, 62, of Sea Cliff, who works in real estate development, started running fundraisers for the organization each spring at Still Partners, a pub in Sea Cliff. The group brings rabbits that are available for adoption, educates people on their care and typically raises about $5,000. Hagan also transports and fosters rabbits.
“Long Island Rabbit Rescue just doesn’t give you a bunny,” Hagan said. “They’ll educate you [about] what you need to do. And they’ll try to pair you with the best possible rabbit for you.”
One bright spot: Because of better medical and home care, pet rabbits can live for eight to 12 years, said Maier. And her own experience, working with hundreds of rabbits for over 20 years, tells her their life expectancy is increasing.
Both Maier and Schreiber are also optimistic that there will be fewer unwanted rabbits once the ban on the retail sale of pets goes into effect.
“I’m hoping that will put a dent in our numbers,” Maier said.
Added Schreiber, “Hopefully, more people will resort to adoption.”
To get involved
To fulfill its mission to rescue and rehome abandoned domestic rabbits, Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group needs:
- Volunteers to help in the everyday care, feeding and cleaning of rabbits in foster homes; for details, visit longislandrabbitrescue.org, facebook.com/LongIslandRabbitRescue or instagram.com/LongIslandRabbitRescue.
- Donations to help cover spaying, neutering, veterinary care, supplies and educational materials. Donations can be made at longislandrabbitrescue.org, or “Shop for a Cause,” through Amazon, Bunny Bliss and other venues at longislandrabbitrescue.org/shop-for-a-cause. The group's annual fundraiser for adults and children, with a visit from the Easter bunny and adoptable rabbits, is planned for March 18 at Still Partners, 225 Sea Cliff Ave., Sea Cliff.
