Every year, people buy live rabbits as Easter bunnies for their kids. It's as bad an idea as puppies under the tree for Christmas. They're living creatures, not toys, and unless you (and your kids) are prepared to care for them for the rest of their natural lives, please don't buy them. You can't just open the cage and let them run "free'' if you get bored with them; thanks to cats, dogs and cars, they won't survive very long.
Actually, that's how - I believe - I got my pet chicken, Chuck E. Chicken - in 1990. Found a little bit of fluff about to wash down a storm drain near Cedars Hospital shortly after Easter. Grabbed her up and raised her into a sizeable white leghorn: a house chicken. Sadly, she developed a virus about a year later and after a week on life support at the vet, finally succumbed. But it was a pretty amusing year for all concerned. I daresay, however, that most discarded (or runaway) Easter critters don't fare so well.
Click here for today's Herald story about this issue (with cute bunny photos).
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