Our focus is to rescue bunnies that are in danger and/or at risk of life-threatening illness or injury. This page will explain where our bunnies come from and what our surrender policy entails.
Neglect – About 10% of our intakes are taken in from truly neglectful homes. If you suspect that someone is neglecting their bunny please speak to them and have them consider surrender. We cannot proceed without owner consent. If the neglect is bad enough, we may need to get authorities involved if the owner refuses help.
If you have bunnies in your care that you know are not being cared for properly, please reach out as soon as possible. Depending on the severity of the case, we will take in the bunnies without taking legal action. If the owner is aware of the neglect and reaches out to us for help, we will help the bunnies above all else.
Surrender – Less than 2% of our intakes come from surrenders. We strongly advise all owners that need to surrender to contact their local no kill shelter to surrender. We do not have room for bunnies that are safe, just unwanted by their families.
The only exception to this rule is if there is a medical emergency that a shelter is not equipped to handle. Proof of medical emergency will be required.
If the owner can foster for up to 9 months, we can intake a surrender and proceed with vetting while attempting to find the bunny a home in that time. If the bunny is here after 9 months, we will make arrangements for a non emergency foster to take the bunny.
Fosters are required to bring the bunny to our vet for their appointments, and sometimes that is not feasible for out of town surrenders. If this is not possible, but time is not a concern, we have an owner surrender waitlist that we can add anyone to. This waitlist currently has a 2 year wait, so we do not recommend this option.
We will never leave an urgent surrender without another option, but we are not the place to surrender unwanted pets. We are focused on urgent rescues, so surrenders are never prioritized.
Shelter Pulls – On the rare occasion that we have a non emergency foster available, we reach out to our shelter partners to pull their bunnies and lessen their space burden. We are happy to say that we pull bunnies from Young-Williams Animal Center, Blount County Animal Center, Sevier Animal Care Center, and Appalachian-Highlands Humane Society on a regular basis.
Dumped/Stray Bunnies – Depending on the year, 75% or more of our bunnies are caught outdoors and taken in by us.
If you find a bunny that you intend to send to us, you must report it to us immediately. The bunny should also be reported to the local shelter in case someone is looking for them. If you have kept the bunny for over 10 days, you have taken ownership of the rabbit. Turning the bunny over to us is then considered a surrender which we cannot help with. See above about surrenders.
We regularly assist with catching dumped and stray bunnies. We welcome volunteers to help us, but the bunny must leave with rescue personnel upon capture.
If you know of a bunny who is outdoors fending for themselves, please report it to obbr.km@gmail.com immediately.
Hoarding/Accidental Breeding – These categories are combined because hoarding cases often start from accidental breeding that gets out of hand quickly.
We help about 2 big hoarding cases per year with 30 or more bunnies. We never have room for that many bunnies, so we start with a few at a time, and bring the bunnies in as we are able. If the owner’s are willing, we allow them to bring remaining bunnies to the vet to go ahead and start getting them taken care of in the meantime.
In these cases, all of the bunnies must be surrendered, and we must be allowed to visit once monthly to ensure proper conditions are met. We will also sex the bunnies at each visit to ensure no one has mixed genders and caused the issue to worsen. A count is taken at each visit to ensure the owner is not taking in more bunnies and causing the hoard to grow.
We will conduct an initial visit to the property to separate bunnies by sex to prevent accidental pregnancies. We start intaking the females first to prevent more pregnancies from happening and increasing the number that needs help. Any mothers currently nursing babies are prioritized. Males are taken in last after we have ensured that all females are off of the property and unable to be impregnated.
The owner of the bunnies must follow a strict protocol in order to receive and continue to receive help. If rules are broken, we will refer them to animal control for further help. Once trust is broken, we will cut ties with the owner. We will not be taken advantage of.
Hoarding cases take months to years to fully eradicate. That means lots of resources are used in order to help these people and get the bunnies the help they need. Taking advantage of our limited resources and desire to help the bunnies is not tolerated.
We are here to help the bunnies, not to be a dumping ground for people who do not care.
Any questions about our intake policy can be sent to obbr.km@gmail.com
Operation Bun Bun Rescue 