CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Local animal shelters have been dealing with overcrowded facilities for a while now, and on Wednesday, CMPD Animal Care and Control announced a new adoption initiative: Operation Bunny Hop.
According to the shelter, a woman recently lost her home and had to give up 30 rabbits, all of whom appeared to be social and in good health.
“At 12:00 p.m. today we “de-hared” a state of emergency, as we do not have enough cages to house all of these cotton tails, so we are putting Operation Bunny Hop into effect,” Communications Manager, Melissa Knicely said. “We need these bunnies to hop into homes as quickly as possible.”
The shelter already had six rabbits at the facility, and with the added influx of bunnies, it needs to quickly find homes for the furry friends.
“We just don’t have a very big room for rabbits,” Knicely said. “We usually can maybe house maybe 10 and that’s at capacity then.”
The rabbits came in all sizes and colors, and appeared to have been well taken care of while living with the woman.
The bunnies are available to new homes immediately, and their adoption fees will be waived.
Knicely said the shelter’s operations budget is close to $6 million per year, which includes salaries and care for the animals housed there.
“We use every bit of that money and then some and then like this year you know everything is going up in prices so all of our medications, all of our vaccines, all of our food has gone up, so that’s very stressful for us,” she said.
In addition to running low on staff, they’re also low on space.
“I think some of the big dogs, the stronger dogs, the dogs that maybe have some behavioral challenges are staying here longer, but the influx of stray dogs coming into the community is still coming in, and it’s creating this big kind of traffic jam,” Knicely said.
Shelter officials do say that if you are interested in adopting one of the bunnies in the next day or two, to expect to wait for a health check to be done before you adopt.
They can be adopted at CMPD Animal Care and Control’s west Charlotte location on Byrum Drive.
Related: Local animal shelter ‘in crisis,’ desperate for adoptions
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