Dear Friends,

Following are three news items that you may be interested in:

1. This is an update on the Tennessee rabbit situation that developed
Friday night:

Patricia Brainard of RabbitwiseMemphis visited the rabbits and reports that
there are now 90 rabbits. She examined about 50 of them, lots of females, some
possibly pregnant, all very nice mini-lops. Some had head tilt and were
euthanized, but the rest *appear* to be healthy.

The following groups are helping by taking in rabbits or assisting in
other ways:

Young-Williams Animal Center in Knoxville is taking ten rabbits, North Georgia
HRS is taking in 25, Cape Fear HRS is taking in rabbits, the House Rabbit
Connection of MA/CT is taking in rabbits, the Arkansas Pet Rabbit Network is
taking rabbits, and the House Rabbit Network of MA is taking some.
RabbitwiseMemphis is helping as well, and Best Friends is sending out publicity
to their network. National HRS is helping with financial assistance. Alabama
EARS is also taking in a couple and helping with spay/neuter assistance.

For folks interested in adopting who are outside of the TN area, the
Bunderground Railroad is offering their assistance. If you need help with
transport or can assist with transport, please contact Patricia at
rabbitwise@....

From Patricia: "It's hard to imagine what their lives have been like, but since
babyhood they've never known what it's like to live in a clean, cozy home or be
loved and recognized for the special beings they are. These bunnies wanted you
to know that they are very beautiful and unusually colored and they are very
proud of their coats(bunnies can be a little vain). They are very interested in
finding out what it would be like to live with a human friend and are hoping to
hop into your life! If you think you would like a lop eared sweetheart to join
your family, please call Kim at: (901)385-6484 or email her at:
kscheu@...." (If you'd like to see photos of the buns, email us.)

Special thanks to Kathy Burke, HRS educator in Greenback, TN, Deb Young, HRS
educator in Connecticut, and Patricia Brainard of RabbitwiseMemphis for all
their work on this.

2. Kelowna, British Columbia rabbits in danger.

The city of Kelowna has hired EBB Consulting to kill the feral domestic rabbit
population in Kelowna for $54,000.

A local, non-profic organization - TRACS (The Responsible Animal Care
Society) put in a bid for less with the plan to spayed/neuter the rabbits and
relocate them to a sanctuary (which is ready to receive the bunnies), where
they can live out their lives healthy, happy, well fed and secure. But the City
of Kelowna decided to go with EBB and the rabbits will be killed.

TRACS, a non-profit group relying 100% on donations, has rescued 250 rabbits so
far but they desperately need funding to capture the remaining 700 rabbits
before EBB kills them. EBB is planning on starting to kill the rabbits very soon
- so time is of the essence. Unfortunately, TRACS can't rescue more rabbits
without the funding to properly look after them!

Please visit http://www.tracs-bc.ca/bunfund.html to find out what's going on,
and to help.

3. New rabbit meat products in Safeway.

It has been reported to us that Safeway stores in Washington State and possibly
elsewhere have introduced a new product, frozen rabbit parts as a snack food.
It's in the freezer case and is displayed much like buffalo wings. Evidently,
Safeway is trying to start a new line of mass consumption novelty products based
on rabbit meat.

The woman who first saw these new products is concerned, as are we at HRS, that
this marks a new attempt by the rabbit processing industry to make rabbit meat
more mainstream.

The rabbit meat comes from Pel-Freez Arkansas, the largest rabbit processor in
the United States, which "processes" rabbits from breeders across the US and
now, evidently, China as well. We are concerned about this attempt to move
rabbit meat from a marginal product to a mainstream product; as production ramps
up, the rabbits being bred and killed will suffer even more. (Pel-Freez's
website has an online application that anyone can fill out to become a Pel-Freez
supplier of rabbits.)

If you are concerned about this trend and want to let Safeway know your
concerns, you can send them a polite note to:

Customer Service Center
Safeway Inc. — M/S 10501
P.O. BOX 29093
Phoenix, AZ 85038 - 9093

Safeway, by the way, has a statement on their website about animal welfare and
its "comprehensive animal welfare program to ensure that both its national brand
and private label suppliers have programs in place standard for the humane
treatment of animals in all aspects of animal husbandry, shipment, and handling
during the harvest process." Because rabbits are not covered under the federal
Humane Methods of Slaughter Law, there is no way to ensure that under current
law rabbits raised and slaughtered for food do get humane treatment.

Safeway owns Vons, Kroger, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Genuardi's and Carrs.

Please feel forward to cross post!