Baton Rouge, LA
225-341-BUNNY
225-341-2866 wendy@magichappensrescue.com

What is MHRR?

Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue is a very small network of volunteers who rescue rabbits in and around the Baton Rouge and surrounding areas. 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. We are a no-kill group, and we take any animal that needs medical attention to our veterinarian(s). We do not adopt out rabbits for food, human or snake. We do our best to keep all of our buns in roomy cages, with all rabbits receiving exercise/playtime daily. Hay, pellets and veggies, plus hide-aways, toys, litterboxes and more, are provided.



Exercise time!


How is a rescue different from a shelter or pound?

A "shelter" is often used to refer to either a pound or humane society. Unfortunately animals that end up at the pound 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. 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. A rescue group is also by far a not-for-profit organization. Adoption fees may occassionally 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 pen), fundraisers are the only means available to pay for these things.


Treat time!


How did a rabbit rescue come about?

My first bunny ever was purchased at a local pet store around Easter time. I bought her myself, and everything needed to go with her. She was a sweet Netherland Dwarf mix, but soon I decided she needed a playmate. Back I went, actually looking for a dutch, but I fell in love with a gorgeous black & white Hotot mix, whom I named Magic. The pet store couldn't tell what gender he was, but they were pretty sure he was female. Whoops. Needless to say, after a few months of maturing, I was breeding rabbits! I looked up a lot about them on the internet, and found homes for them by going to pet stores and getting them used to people (who often called me back when they were weaned to get one!) or word of mouth. A few years later, I began working at a different pet store. I found out first hand just how many animals were dropped off at stores, and I couldn't stand to see the bunnies sitting in the back room waiting for homes, knowing they had no room to play, or at least nothing like my guys had at home - an entire backyard! So I would bring them home... and all the employees knew I would take them in, and they would help me find homes when anybody called and asked if we sold rabbits (which the store didn't). Pretty soon I was bringing home animals from all sorts of situations and finding families to take them in... and voila! As for the name, "Magic Happens" is something I always thought of when Magic, my second rabbit, interacted with different people. He went to a nursing home, 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. 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 we got back home, it was no more Mr. Nice Guy! I strongly feel that Magic knew what was going on when he was interacting with visitors - he sure made a lasting impression on me!




Magic and "Maw Maw", who passed away in 2003. Magic died shortly after in 2004.



What services does MHRR offer?

MHRR 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 (supervised!) to come in and pet the bunnies. We also bring educational items such as bunny care items (types of food, toys, a giant matt of hair, etc.) and care information handouts. If allowed, we will gladly do a fundraiser as well, such as pictures with the rabbits or facepainting.

MHRR also makes classroom or daycare visits. We bring one or two of our rabbits (sometimes an adoptable, sometimes a resident, or both!) 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?). We can even do Easter photos. Find out more about what MHRR does in our area at our Community Outreach page.