Napa Bunny Colony Rescue Operation

We are a group of concerned individuals involved in a large-scale rabbit rescue in a residential area of Napa. We seek to gather up every single rabbit from the colony, get them spayed or neutered, and find them safe and loving indoor homes.

A few weeks ago, I visited this neighborhood in Napa after being told there were bunnies roaming free everywhere. Unfortunately, I immediately saw that these weren’t the same cute wild rabbits you can find around Napa, but rather domestic breeds that were dumped outside to fend for themselves.

I visited a couple more times, talked to some neighbors and learned that about four or five years ago a couple abandoned their rabbits after separating and moving away. Fast forward to today, their intact pair of rabbits turned into hundreds of them with the occasional dumped unwanted pet bunny added to the mix.

Left alone, one breeding pair of rabbits – and their offspring – can create nearly four million rabbits in only four years! Females are able to have babies at about three months old. Their pregnancies last around 30 days and a rabbit can get pregnant again just moments after giving birth! A female rabbit could hypothetically give birth to up to 14 babies 12 times in one year.

The only reason the population is somewhat under control here is that bunnies have been constantly dying from being hit by cars, predators or purposely being poisoned and killed. In fact, nearly all these bunnies are babies and juveniles, meaning their life expectancy rarely exceeds two years. Several neighbors told me about this bunny and that bunny, and how one day they stopped coming around…

It didn’t take me long to find parts of bunnies, dead babies – I picked up four newborns over the weekend that had died in the night, as well as injured bunnies. It’s unimaginably sad!

I knew I couldn’t just walk away from this crisis, so I reached out to a few folks and a week later here we are rescuing rabbits!

As you can imagine gathering up every rabbit, get them spayed or neutered, and find them homes is an enormous task that will require lots of resources. We have partnered with Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch, a local nonprofit organization that is a no-kill rescue and sanctuary in the Napa Valley for companion and farmed animals in need. There are graciously offering many resources, but we cannot do it alone.

We have some donated supplies and we are going to contribute not only our time, but also our money to help these bunnies. We will need to cover the ongoing cost of feeding and caring for the rabbits, medical expenses including spay and neutering fees.

Please support our efforts by making a donation today. The cost of this rescue operation will exceed $30,000. This is a volunteer operation and any money that you donate is going 100% towards rescuing the bunnies.

Note: when you make a donation through GoFundMe, there is an option for the GFM "tip" that can be changed to zero percent. You don't have to tip them!