What is Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue?

Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue is a small network of volunteers who rescue rabbits and occasionally other small pets. while centered in Baton Rouge, LA, our outreach extends even beyond state lines when needed. We offer education through classroom visits, event booths, and adoption screenings, but most importantly, we help unwanted animals find their new “furr-ever” homes.

Our rabbits for adoption come from all walks of life. Often they are a child’s pet, and the young caretaker loses interest, sometimes for a new pet, or especially if a young bunny is purchased and it unknowingly becomes an “unruly teenager” a few months later. Others come from animal control, are found wandering neighborhoods after being “set free” by people who no longer wanted them, or even drop-offs at pet stores. A few months after Easter, we often receive entire "unexpected litters" from Easter Rabbits bought without prior research. However, Easter is definitely not the only time we receive rabbits.

Sadly, few rabbits that become unwanted end up in rescue. Most often they are given away to another unprepared home, and the rabbit goes through the cycle again. Others are let loose, left to find palatable grasses, avoid dogs and cars, and suffer from mites, fleas, heat, and rain.

Rabbits are not as common of a pet as a cat or dog, and are much less understood as a family pet. They are often picked up at a pet store, put in a cage, and no questions are asked. Others are raised as livestock, being left outdoors and not socialized, and sit all alone day after day. Neither situation makes a happy pet, or a happy family! This is where our education mission comes in.

MHRR will accept any rabbit that needs a new home regardless of size, breed, health, age, or temperament. We are a no-kill group, and - any animal that needs medical attention receives prompt veterinary care. We do not adopt out rabbits for food, human or snake. We do our best to keep all of our buns in roomy cages or playpens, with all rabbits receiving exercise and playtime -. Hay, pellets and veggies, plus hide-aways, toys, litterboxes and more, are provided.

How is a rescue different from a shelter or animal control?

While these terms are often used interchangeably, most often a "shelter" is often used to refer to either an animal control facility, humane society, or sometimes a rescue group that has its own building. Unfortunately animals that end up at animal control are most often euthanized due to lack of space and available homes willing to take in new animals. This is where spaying & neutering comes in!

A "rescue group" is a network of volunteers who work together for a common goal - saving the lives of animals in their care. Rescue groups may often limit how many animals they can take in because most volunteers are foster parents and only have so much room in their homes in addition to their own pets. There usually is no shelter facility to visit - this is why you see many groups at large pet stores such as Petsmart & Petco on weekends at "Adoption Days"... it is often their only means to get their animals into the view of the public other than online. Adoption fees may occasionally cover the expense of the animal being adopted, but if one animal gets sick or a major purchase is needed (such as the rebuilding of a play area), fundraisers are the only means available to pay for these things. Rescue groups are NOT funded by the government like animal control facilities, and grant availability for rescue groups - especially rabbits - is very limited.

How did a rabbit rescue come about?

Wendy (our Director & founder) bought her first bunny at a local pet store around Easter time. She always had lots of pets and was an avid animal lover, and a bunny seemed like a cute addition to her household. She was an outgoing dwarf mix, but Wendy decided she needed a playmate. Back she went, actually looking for a dutch, but fell in love with a gorgeous black & white Hotot mix, whom she named Magic. The pet store was pretty sure it was a female too. Whoops. Needless to say, after a few months of maturing, she was accidentally breeding rabbits! She separated them and did more research online, and found homes for the babies by going to pet stores and getting them used to people (who often called back when they were weaned to get one). A few years later, she began working at a different pet store. She found out first hand just how many animals were dropped off at stores, and couldn't stand to see the bunnies sitting in the back room waiting for homes, knowing few people would come for them since the store didn't regularly carry rabbits. She felt sorry that they had no room to play, or at least nothing like her guys had at home. So she began bringing them home. All the store employees knew she would take them in, and they would help her find homes when anybody called and asked if the store sold rabbits. Eventually other stores and veterinary clinics learned of "the girl that takes in rabbits" as they sent people to her to surrender or adopt, and Magic Happens was born!

As for the name, "Magic Happens" is something she always thought of when Magic interacted with different people. He went to a nursing home to visit Wendy's grandmother, a daycare, and pet stores, and always was quite the gentlemen for kids who did not yet know how to pet a bunny, or an elderly soul who could pet but not support him properly. He would never claw, kick, or bite, but shake his head in protest as if to say "I don't like that" as kindly as he could if he was handled in a way he didn't like. But when he got back home, it was no more Mr. Nice Guy! Wendy felt strongly that Magic knew what was going on when he was interacting with visitors!

What services does MHRR offer?

Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue offers boarding and nail trims for bunnies in our area. We invite anyone to come out to one of our Care Days to visit with the rabbits and learn how to do their own mini physicals and nails trims on their own rabbits.

MHRR can host a booth at all different types of events, such as church, school, or scout fairs, craft shows, and more. At our booth we can offer many services, with the main attraction being bunny-petting! We will bring our exercise pens for the rabbits to run and play, and children are allowed to pet the bunnies. If allowed, we will gladly do a fundraiser as well, such as t-shirt or jewelry sales or face painting.

MHRR also makes classroom or daycare visits. We bring one or two of our rabbits to demonstrate rabbit care and talk all about rabbits, which can include up-close views of herbivore teeth and hands-on feeling of different types of rabbit fur. We also tie this in to pet responsibility (spay/neuter, don't release pets into the wild) and pet ownership (what is involved in keeping a pet rabbit?). Find out more about what MHRR does in our area at our Community Outreach page.