** HRS Celebrates 20 years. Join us for the Celebration!

House Rabbit Society celebrates 20 years of rabbit rescue and advocacy
in 2008! To celebrate this great accomplishment, we are hosting a very
special 20th Anniversary Event on June 21, 2008, at Humanist Hall in
Oakland. This will be a gourmet vegetarian dinner by Philip Gelb
Catering with wine by McManis Family Vineyards, and special
anniversary coffee provided by Rabbit EARS as well as an auction, a
gift boutique, an art show, and an evening of entertainment and
celebration. If you are on the HRS mailing list in California, you
should have received an invitation for this event in May. If you
didn't receive an invitation, view it at
http://www.rabbit.org/events/hrs20invitetext.html.

Our auction will include wonderful toys, housing and treats for your
rabbit, as well as great rabbit-themed goodies for you too, as well as
lots of services and gifts that will satisfy anyone. To see the list
of donors (so far) to our auction, please visit
http://www.rabbit.org/events/leapforjoyauctionthanks.html.

We will also be hosting a fun movie event at the Cerrito Speakeasy
Theatre in El Cerrito on Sunday, June 22. We will be showing the camp
classic horror film Night of the Lepus. It will be a fun night--we
hope you can join us!

Chapter commemorative events include the following (links to
individual events at http://www.rabbit.org/events/hrs20.html):

-- March 22: Sacramento HRS Run for the Buns
-- March 29: Massachusetts HRS 5th annual Bunraiser
-- April 5: Seattle HRS Annual Dinner & Silent Auction
-- April 20: Tampa Bay HRS BunFest
-- April 27: Milwaukee HRS Bunny Day
-- May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31: Arkansas HRS "20/20 Vision"
-- May 4: HRS Italy Celebrates "Conigliando a tutto pelo"
-- May 31: San Diego HRS Open House
-- June 7: Columbus HRS "Celebrating Rabbits"
-- June 7: Arkansas HRS "20/20 Vision"
-- June 8: St. Louis HRS Bunny Expo
-- June 8: North Georgia BunFest
-- June 14: Colorado HRS Spring Fling
-- June 14: Chicago HRS BunnyFest Picnic
-- June 21: HRS Headquarters Celebratory Dinner
-- Fall (TBD): Madison HRS Bunny Day
-- September/October (TBD): Vancouver HRS Rabbit Festival
-- October 12: Maryland/DC/NoVA HRS celebrates "HRS: 20 Years and
Counting"
-- October 25: New Jersey HRS BunnyFest
-- October (TBD): New York City HRS Rabbit Care Conference
-- December 6: Alabama EARS BYOB Party

Call us at 510-970-7575 if you'd like to find out more about our 20th
anniversary celebrations.

** Funny Bunny Toy Company Helps HRS Celebrate 20 Years of Rabbit
Education and Rescue

The Funny Bunny Toy Company (http://www.funnybunnytoyco.com/) is
donating 25% of all sales to HRS in the month of June to mark our 20th
anniversary. So don't forget to buy!

** HRS 20th Anniversary Commemorative Merchandise Available
You can order HRS 20th anniversary commemorative items at
http://www.cafepress.com/hrs/4863737.

** New Organic, Fair Trade Coffee to benefit Rabbit Rescue!

RabbitEARS, a rabbit rescue organization located in Kensington, CA,
in partnership with Thanksgiving Coffee Company, has developed three
Fair Trade and Organic Certified Anniversary Blends which will be
launched this month in celebration of House Rabbit Society's 20th
Anniversary. A portion of the profits from the sale of the coffees
will be donated to HRS and to wild rabbit sanctuaries.

For more information about how to buy the coffee and support rabbit
rescue and wild rabbit habitat, or earn money for your rescue group,
please contact RabbitEARS at http://www.rabbitears.org/.


** Rabbits on the Web

* BunSpace.com (http://www.bunspace.com/) is a community for rabbit
lovers, built by rabbit lovers. Create a webpage for your furry kids,
make new friends, share your bunny photos, tell your stories, and much
more. Think MySpace for rabbit people. The site guidelines specify
that the site is dedicated to real rabbits and that only rabbit owners
and "rabbit benefit" organizations can have profiles. They
specifically state that they will remove seller and breeder profiles.
See the winners of their Best Rabbit Residence contest at
http://www.bunspace.com/contestwinners?contestid=4&all=1.

* 3D Desktop Easter Bunny Rabbits Screensaver is available for both
for PC (http://www.uselesscreations.com/rabbits/) and Mac OS X
(http://www.uselesscreations.com/mac/rabbits/).

* The caption for this picture (http://i28.tinypic.com/34y5zr5.jpg) is
Evil Bunny. The rabbit certainly has an "I'm going to take over the
world and you can't stop me" vibe going on.

** Cruelty Cases in Las Vegas

Las Vegas House Rabbit Society recently took in two rabbits who were victims of
horrible crimes. Lucky Bunny, now named Riesling, was dyed blue and ejected
from a moving car last week. A wonderful person immediately rushed to his aid
and was horrified to see that this two pound bunny's ears were mangled and
mutilated.

A second rabbit, Milagro, was brought into the animal shelter in Las Vegas with
both of his ears cut off, right down to his head. Thankfully, Kathy from Las
Vegas HRS was able to rescue him, and is giving him loving care.

Both bunnies are now in safe hands, but their veterinary bills may be high. To
contribute to the fund set up to care for them, go to
http://www.bunnyrescuefund.org/ or email Maria Perez at MLMPProds@....

** New Children's Book

Bramley's Little Sister is a new children's book about a relationship
with a real rabbit and his human baby sister. Dawn's Animal
Connection will donate $1.00 for each book sold online to the Rabbit
Rescue of your choice. Visit the book website (http://www.dawnallen.net),
select House Rabbit Society from the drop-down menu then click "Add
to Cart" to purchase your book(s).

** HRS Emergency Rescue Grant Helping Rabbits Everywhere

The HRS Emergency Rescue Grant, launched in 2007, has so far
benefited 15 rabbit rescue groups and animal shelters who have
struggled with large domestic rabbit rescues, with $6250 so far being
sent to groups in the United States and Canada.

** Rabbits in the News

Offering Hope to Hoppers for 20 Years
http://tiny.cc/bk3Zh
A happy anniversary article from the Best Friends Animal Society.

VIDEO: Rabbit Lady
http://tiny.cc/JJ6dF
HRS Educator June Booth was profiled by the New Orleans
Times-Picayune. The newspaper also produced a video, which you can
view at the above link.

Agriculture Commissioner Irvin discourages giving animals as Easter
presents
http://tiny.cc/oXf2F
Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin is urging parents to
think twice before giving animals to children this Easter. Edie Sayag
of the North Georgia says that this is the first time she has seen a
government agency in Georgia acknowledge the work that HRS and other
rescue organizations are doing.

Good luck indeed: 53 million-year-old rabbit's foot bones found
http://www.physorg.com/news125164897.html
One day last spring, fossil hunter and anatomy professor Kenneth Rose,
Ph.D. was displaying the bones of a jackrabbit's foot as part of a
seminar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine when
something about the shape of the bones looked oddly familiar. That
unanticipated eureka moment has led researchers at the school to the
discovery of the oldest known record of rabbits. The fossil evidence
in hand, found in west-central India, predates the oldest previously
known rabbits by several million years and extends the record of the
whole category of the animal on the Indian subcontinent by 35 million
years.

Pet Care Tips For Real Easter Bunnies
http://tiny.cc/hkOGm
Although this story ran on the CBS Early Show before Easter, it's
still excellent information for people considering rabbits as pets.
Click on the picture of the bunny on the left side of the page to
watch the video.

A Novel Approach to Helping a Rare Rabbit
http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentID=7829
Efforts to aid the endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit through the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.

** Chapter Updates

* The Arkansas Pet Rabbit Network is in the process of establishing a
non-profit which has energized our membership. Over 30 people and
many rabbits attended our last meeting in February indicating that we
are filling a need. Our meetings feature bunny nail trimming and
bunny glamour shots along with topics on bunny care. One of our
members and a former volunteer with the Colorado House Rabbit Society,
Erin Bradford, has setup a Petfinder page, a Yahoo chat room, and a
home page for our group.

For the 20th anniversary, we are setting up HRS and bunny information
tables at leading pet stores in May and June. On Mother's Day
weekend, May 10th and 11th, we staffed a booth at the Hot Springs Art
in the Park. At the event we had several bunny related displays, sold
some anniversary merchandise, and offered a free dog park memorial
brick, and free bunny spay and neuter.

* Baltimore/DC Chapter

Kelly Fitzpatrick, a volunteer with the chapter, put together a very
nice Easter adoption video and posted it to YouTube. Watch it at
http://www.youtube.com/BaltimoreDCHRS.


** Become a Member of House Rabbit Society or Renew Your Membership

If you are not a member of House Rabbit Society, please take this
opportunity to join us. A yearly tax-deductible membership costs
only $18, or $25 for international memberships. If you already are a
member, thank you, and please remember to renew (we don't send out renewal
notices but we'd be happy to tell you if your membership has expired, or when it
will). All members receive the Society's newsletter, House Rabbit Journal,
edited by House Rabbit Society founder and author of The House Rabbit Handbook,
Marinell Harriman. Please go to http://rabbit.org/hrs-info/joining.html.

Laura Barnes
HRS E-Newsletter Editor and HRS Educator
laura@...

** Thank you on behalf of the rabbits.