NEWS ARTICLES

Bunnies at home, rescuers at ease

Nonprofit group's San Pedro quarters fund operations

By Nick Green
THE DAILY BREEZE (December 14, 2004)

Bunnies: They're not just for Easter anymore.

Or at least that's the hope of Bona Tucker, executive director of the Torrance-based PetSave Foundation.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the nonprofit group that specializes in aiding and finding new homes for unwanted rabbits has opened a San Pedro store called PetSave's Rabbitat & Gifts.

The front of the 2,340-square-foot store is devoted to rabbit-, dog- and cat-themed gifts. The rear houses about 170 rabbits - and no, Tucker does not have room for any more, so don't ask - awaiting loving owners and new homes.

Gift shop proceeds help offset the not inconsiderable food and vet bills the group incurs.

The building was financed with the assistance of a donor who has requested anonymity, but who provided a $100,000 contribution and a $400,000 loan.

The purchase was a relief to the group that had searched for a permanent home since vacating a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles building in April.

The group had been there for almost two years, after SPCALA seized about 450 rabbits from a MarVista home when an eccentric rabbit collector had kept the critters in squalor without adequate food or water. PetSave had stepped in to look after the bunnies.

"This has been a horrendous nightmare process to find someone who might accept us," Tucker said. "I looked everywhere to find a place. I learned the city codes from Hawthorne to Santa Fe Springs."

In fact, to plug the gap between the time the group moved out of the SPCALA facility and into the San Pedro store last month, the owners of Lomita Gardens Nursery temporarily accommodated dozens of rabbits.

Many cities just don't want a facility housing dozens of rabbits and erected roadblocks every time the group found a suitable place to lease, Tucker said.
Not so San Pedro, which was happy to welcome the store and, most importantly, the rabbits that Tucker is, fluffy bunny by fluffy bunny, trying to find new homes.

Tucker, the shop's sole employee - volunteers fill in the gaps - knows all the rabbits and their heartrending stories.

There's Pharaoh, a white rabbit that appears to have black eyeliner like the ancient Egyptian rulers favored and was found abandoned in a cage in full sun at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood.
Sarang - the name means "love" in Korean, said Tucker - was discovered being stalked by feral cats in the parking lot of a Korean church in Torrance.
And Laurie, a big brown rabbit abandoned in a Torrance pet store when no one was looking.

Almost as important as willing adopters are people willing to volunteer in the store or to clean cages.

But mostly, Tucker is just relieved to have found a new home for homeless bunnies that keep coming through her doors.

For instance, earlier in the week Tucker had spent about an hour chasing eight domesticated rabbits around San Pedro's Deana Dana Friendship Park where some thoughtless person had released them, condemning them to almost certain death (she captured five).

Unlike most other businesses, Tucker wishes the entire place didn't exist.
"My fondest wish would be to be put out of business because there weren't extra rabbits," she said.

Find out more

• What: PetSave's Rabbitat & Gifts, a combination gift shop and shelter operated by the PetSave Foundation, a Torrance-based nonprofit group.
• When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.
• Where: 522 W. 9th Street, San Pedro.
• More information: Call 310-833-7333 or log on to www.petsave.org

Volunteer Prima Devera is cleaning up cages at the rabbit haven, established by PetSave. The rear of the gift shop houses 170 rescued rabbits, which the group is trying to place in homes.

 

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