In the early spring of 2010 we all learned from local media reports of Ms.Zenner, a middle-aged lady in Edmonton, Alberta had about 500 rabbits taken from her Edmonton home. As a rabbit owner for over 20 years, I was naturally concerned and took a look into the issue after my near-pneumonia cold/flu had subsided. What I found was a horrifying manipulation of the public by the local media - a propaganda system of misinformation, emotional attacks and false perceptions created for society minds, then injected by the local media - similar to the movie, The Matrix.
A few weeks ago I spoke to the lady accused of hoarding and abusing these rabbits. It was very clear to me that this was a very sensitive person who loved nature, rescued and nursed any injured birds or animals. She was clearly heartbroken about losing all her "family" of bunnies, and as she brought out her photo album of them lounging about in her once-beautiful home, she told me about some of her favorite times, like apple nights where they all gathered around her to get extra treats. The rabbits came in when called after roaming daily in her fenced backyard.
If you looked at the complaint video online that showed them in her backyard, it was apparent the rabbits seen outdoors were fat, healthy and stress-free as show by their relaxed postures.If you look at the video, there are some plump rabbits relaxing and hopping about large patches of grass still there - hardly the sign of totally starving rabbits... This apparently escaped the local medias notice. When I spoke with her, I learned that she gave up her beautiful home and paychecks to ensure they had shelter, food, and proper vet care. She quickly gave her vets name, and recounted a tale of how city police had previously kindly helped her catch some stray rabbits that got into a neighbours yard. So even the police new of this situation....but did not think it was so bad that it was a serious problem.
What the media did not report, which I learned of through talking to the person, was that for several years, Ms Zenner had been rescuing tame house rabbits left outside to survive Edmonton, Alberta's harsh winter climate where temperatures nightly can plummet to -20C to -30C for many months - far too harsh for most domestic rabbits to endure. So why did the the local media has made sure this tragedy is being blamed on the wrong party ? Why was she being vilified by the local media rather than portrayed as a kind and caring person, left with the burden of doing too much on her own ?
The news reports say that the local Edmonton Humane Society (EHS) were aware of her rabbit population for several years, but fails to ask the questions like then why did they not work with her to (a) spay and neuter her rabbits (b) help her to rescue and shelter (i) her rabbits (ii) other abandoned rabbits (c) learn where they were coming from ( re: 45 starving rabbits found elsewhere in Edmonton on an abandoned bus Dec. 2009 ).
All the media failed to consider that rabbits multiply quickly - if you start with just 6 rabbits ( 3male, 3 female) you can easily have 8 rabbits per litter, every 2 months ! Do the math and you find that you can very quickly get 500 rabbits in less than a year - especially when one spaying costs about $300.00. But it is not just the cost - almost every rabbit info writes that rabbits become sexually mature in 6 months, when in fact I know they can mature as early as 3-4 months, but they cannot be safely spayed/neutered (anaesthesia sensitivity, organ size) without killing them until they are about 10-12 months old.
So what drove the personal attacks of local reporters ? The Edmonton Journal took "the high road", only quoting a local nurse as saying the young-lady was mentally ill as she was hoarding rabbits. Yet the person quoted was a nurse, not a fully trained psychologist ( whom should have an appreciation for animals ). Even if this were true, I think Ms Zenner rightly feared the EHS (a killing "shelter") would simply slaughter her beloved rabbit pets that she rescued, cared for, and shared her home with. Would you easily hand over your favorite pet(s) knowing they were going to be killed or would you work hard to save them until a better solution could be found ?
So what do we accuse people of when they collect dead things, like coins, books, antiques, or live things like tulip bulbs, etc? Are they automatically branded as mentally ill hoarders ? So what about hunters with wall mounted trophies of their kills ?
The most vicious attacks were from reporters of the Edmonton Sun, who apparently took great delight in quoting disgruntled neighbours calling the rescuer weird, sick, etc. I would normally applaud hostile reporting of animal abuses (like the Sun reporters earlier writings on the abandoned horses near Edson, which probably sensitized them to over-react ). However, in this case it was clear that the Edmonton Sun was far more interested in portraying the rescuer to be a horrible person, and sensationalizing the event so as to sell more newspapers.
Clearly it was all about selling newspapers, and nothing sells like tales of tragedy and horrific villains like Ms. Zenner, who was months later, still too heart-broken, too sick and tired to talk without crying or able to properly defend herself from the media wolves.
I contrast Ms Zenner's shabby treatment by the media with an article I have (but cannot publish) from about 10 years ago (Aug.2000) from the Victoria Times-Colonist that praised the heroic efforts of Erin Quinney of Sooke, BC who had saved over 300 rabbits from execution due to a negative, erroneous media campaign by a local hospital. She cared for all 300 rabbits and many other animals for about 10 years until the day she died in spring of 2009. The media and public mostly forgot her, and forgot to continue to support her efforts - but at least they fairly recognized what she did was caring and humane. She was not vilified by the press, nor falsely accused of being mentally ill or hoarding.
So was it necessary to kill all this rabbits ? The local EHS said they were all sick with a disease called snuffles, which is contagious and can kill rabbits if severe enough. However, snuffles can be easily misdiagnosed as a reaction to dust, hair/fur, cold weather, diet, etc. Many rabbits also happily live for many years with pasteurella infections that give runny noses, eye discharges too. Unless you area very experienced rabbit vet, you could make an extremist misdiagnosis. It appears to me this was an "easy way out" solution to save money rather than provide humane long term care for all of the rabbits.
The local media carefully avoided mentioning that over the past few years, the EHS foolishly spent about $15 million dollars on a fancy new building - instead of focusing on providing spay/neuter and rescue efforts. True, the new shelter was needed as the old EHS centre was scheduled to become a freeway off ramp. However, $15 million seems like a creating a showcase than actual vital operations support and a simple cost effective building.
I think this was a carefully constructed series of lies to the media and public to avoid the costs of sheltering and caring for the rescued rabbits, so that more money could be spent on selling marketable cats, dogs, and to pay the heating and property taxes on that fancy new building. The cheapskate City of Edmonton that evicted the EHS from their old location, then charged the EHS over $12,000 to install a bus stop (rather than donating it). I also know that the rabbits were not favorites of one EHS director (new building fund-raiser), who had me removed many times for complaining about the summer heat (only their staff had a fan) and lack of water in the rabbits cages at the old EHS shelter. I also wrote a few times to say they should focus more on providing animal spay-neuters, and should save money to do so with just a simple new shelter building. The best SPCA I have seen is the Victoria, BC SPCA which has a large room where rabbits have large, common area to hop around and interact with kids and adults ! The Edmonton SPCA keeps them in tiny cages with minimal public interaction, and very little healthy, vital exercise.
I remember how hard Erin Quinney had worked for over a decade to care for all the animals she had in her care - she died in poverty a few months after her companion Troy Liard had died. Society had forgotten her - the latest game scores and corporate dealings were far more important to the world than somebody who loved and cared for other living beings with everything she had, everyday.
In Edmonton, the local media has ensured the EHS gets away with gross negligence in their mandate to allow this to occur, and instead the true care-giver is setup to take the blame by the Courts for doing what the EHS should have done all along. Yet, was the EHS itself overwhelmed / under-budgeted ? First 45 rabbits in Dec.2009 then the 2 separate, horrific tragedies of abandoned horses and other animals around Edson, Alberta in Feb.2010 . This follows the tragic horse abuses around Andrew, Alberta of summer 2008 right under the nose of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach whose nearby family farm operated for about 100 years.
So why has the Alberta Govt been so slow to take action to better protect animals, regulate animal breeder licensing, and to better support the Calgary SPCA, Edmonton EHS, and other groups ? The Alberta Govt apparently did not make any donation to the new EHS building according to the lack of an Alberta Govt plaque on the EHS shelters donation wall. Alberta Govt has given millions and billions of dollars to highly profitable oil companies over the past decade, but apparently nothing for Animal Humane Societies.
For those of you reading this, please consider that the vast majority of people in Alberta love animals and nature. We just have a few uncaring red-neck morons who are truly mentally ill, because like a robot they have no feelings of concern or compassion for other living things, but they are not properly diagnosed or branded by the media like Ms. Zenner, one truly dedicated rabbit friend, rescuer and caregiver of Edmonton.
PS- 21 June 2010
The Edmonton Sun even got another local rabbit rescuer I know of to boost sales of the Sun newspaper by posing for a front-page picture to boost paper sales in return for flattery coverage of their great past rescue efforts ( which they abandoned to me a year ago - www.hoppyendings.com after giving us Nutmeg, apparently a very sick rabbit without telling us. Nutmeg later died ). However, the infection was hard to detect, and I really cannot blame them. Those inaugural members of hoppyendings did tremendous tasks of love and caring, spending hundreds of hours a week and thousands of dollars to rescue rabbits - they should only get love and respect, some well deserved media attention, and some public appreciation. THANK YOU Leslie, Brian & Loni for being unsung heroes - unlike Ms Zenner, without the negativity attacks Ms Zenner suffered for doing what you did and more. So it seems that it all really comes done to how the media portrays your efforts (unless your the one being rescued, who cares? ). I guess time and heavens final judgement will tell. But like so many other instances, we get media trained to damage or destroy truly good efforts, or by our collective/media silence, allow good people to be denied fair justice, to be cheated or abused, or simply ignored.
If we cared more about people in need, and spent less subsidizing wealthy banks and corporations, or futile time-wasting (overpaid) pro-sports (eg multi-billion dollar Olympics), then we could all spend that time and money actually solving local, regional and world problems. Maybe then nature and those who care about God's gifts of living things, would have a better chance of long term successes. We all must realize that this is our one chance to create a true Heaven on Earth - why else would we be given the gift of knowledge ? We simply lack coordinated messages of guidance - which needs to start with the Churches of this world. People need learn that we have a duty of care for all living things, and that other living things do have souls, and we only destroy ourselves/our souls by denying these facts so obvious to anyone who has had a pet of any kind. Thanks to the media, EHS, et al Ms. Zenner has lost 500 loving friends. How would you like it if the EHS dragged all your pets away and asphyxiated them - that is the legacy of horror left for Ms Zenner to relive the rest of her life - in addition to the public scorn and derision created by some of the uncaring local media. Already she has been given a life sentence of humliation and horrible memories for her valiant efforts.
