Willie was dumped by a breeder because she had an eye infection.
She was only 1 week old, left to freeze to death outside in the CO winter.
and to create a community in which bunny dumping is not an option.
Willie was found, cared for, and loved. Few bunnies are that lucky.
We are the ones who found Willie. Blind and cold, she had somehow made it into our backyard in CO. We brought her inside, kept her warm and snug in a towel in a shoebox. Knowing nothing about bunnies, but recognizing that she was very young, we gave her some whipping cream, which she ate. And then she pooped. So we figured she might just make it through the night.
Twice a day for the next few months, we'd clean out her eyes with warm water and q-tips. And at about 2 months old, Willie's eyes finally developed.
Willie lived with us for 1 and a half years, a sunshine and source of endless love and companionship, until she unfortunately passed away during spay surgery.
Out of Willie's loss came Willie's Fund.
To spay and neuter as many bunnies as we can.
Raise awareness for spaying and neutering as a clear choice for bunny ownership.
Promote the services, knowledge, and history of Rabbit Haven.
Promote a spay/neuter tradition in our community so that each year fewer and fewer bunnies go homeless and neglected.
We cannot safely and successfully fix bunnies without excellent bunny vets. The vets we use are hand-selected from the Puget Sound area by Sue, founder of Rabbit Haven.
For the Rabbit Haven bunnies, our volunteers care for them before and after surgery, and we spay and neuter all bunnies that come through Rabbit Haven. All Rabbit Haven bunnies are automatically covered by Willie's Fund for their spay/neuter cost.
For our outreach bunnies, each of the participating vets’ clients get to submit bunny-specific applications for the available funds. Willie's Fund will review the requests in cooperation with Sue. Sue has the final say on whether a bunny is approved for the funded surgery. The bunny’s owner will need to provide a picture and brief story on the bunny that Willie's Fund will be allowed to publish. This will allow us to share the stories and advocate for the use of spay and neuter as a way to keep bunnies with their owners who love them and want to care for them.
Willie's Fund contacts the vet with the decision and provides payment for the surgery once performed. Once surgery has been performed and the bunny is fully healed, the owner may opt to provide a follow-up story and picture of the bunny.
Willie's Fund is contributing $3,000 in matching funds for spaying and neutering bunnies in 2019. At least half of the total raised funds will be dedicated to spaying and neutering bunnies in the care of Rabbit Haven. Sue has the sole discretion of deciding which Rabbit Haven bunnies are spayed/neutered.
because if we don't strive to do better, who will?
Rabbit Haven is the subject matter expert on all things bunny, liaison for approving the bunnies to be spayed/neutered, and the contact to secure a lower per bunny spay/neuter cost.
Willie's Fund will advertise the cooperative campaign at the selected vets’ offices, the Rabbit Haven Facebook page and website, and at additional venues as approved by Sue.
How To Track Our Progress?
With each bunny spayed/neutered, we'll post its picture and story on the Rabbit Haven website and Facebook page along with the total funds raised and total funds available. The website page will also include links to the cooperating vets and a form for use by owners applying to have a bunny spayed/neutered as part of this campaign. The campaign will last as long as there are funds.
Only house bunnies owned by residents within the Puget Sound area (Olympia, Bremerton, Gig Harbor, Tacoma, University Place, and Seattle) are eligible. Max 1 bunny per household address.
All questions/comments/contact for the campaign is via rabbitHavenWA@gmail.com.
100% of Willie’s Fund contributions go toward spay & neuter surgeries.
We have no overhead and no administrative fees.