Picking and Choosing Animals

Now, let me start this by saying, there is nothing wrong with having preferences. 

Say someone wants to adopt a chinchilla -- great!  Let's say they want a grey -- great!  Let's say they want a white -- great!  May take more time for that white to show up at the rescue, but it's possible!  Let's say they want an angora -- eh, getting too picky.

I've noticed this trend lately... and of course, people will want what they want, but the trend has been for wanting things that don't end up in rescue.  "Oh, I want an angora chinchilla... as a rescue."  Well.... they're still like $750+ for those, so... chances are they are not ending up at a rescue.  None have ever ended up here, nor have any ended up at any rescue I've ever been in contact with.  Why?  Because they are sellable.

The one that has really been prevalent lately has been regarding rabbits.  As you may have seen, we have Ellie up for adoption.  So, people have been calling, not wanting to adopt her, mind you, but to ask if we have other rabbits up for adoption.  Specifically, mini lop-eared rabbits, preferably super super young.  Uh, no.  In the 16 years of running this rescue, for about 14 of those, we did take in rabbits (and even now, we still occasionally have them at foster homes)... we have rehomed over 1000 animals.  Only ONE of those was a lop-eared rabbit, and if I remember correctly, he was at least an adult, if not an ancient senior.

The thing is, I appreciate people wanting to adopt.  I do.  But to some extent... I feel like you can't be overly picky.  Rescues and shelters will get in what they get in.  I can't go somewhere and post, "hey, if anyone wants to re-home a baby lop-eared rabbit, I'm happy to take it cause we have a home lined up!"... that's unfortunately not how that works.  Again, a rabbit like that would be highly sellable, cause almost everyone loves lops and those floppy ears.  And that's fine, but that tends to mean that not a lot of little lops, that are also young, tend to end up in rescue.  When we would take in rabbits, a good chunk of the ones we would take in would be cage aggressive, large-breed rabbits that would not do well in the average home.  That's what rescues get!  And that's fine... but it's not the rabbit that homes tend to think of, when they say, "oh I'd like a rabbit."

Adopting is great... the selection, not always so much :/