Over the past several years, Sweet Binks has taken in shelter relinquished or captured strays that arrive in horrible shape. Many of the rabbits are rehabilitated and placed for adoption, but for some it is too late.  All we can do is ease their suffering through humane euthanasia and let them know someone cared about them.
For many of these rabbits, these conditions could have been prevented by their former owners doing the rightful and humane act of surrendering their unwanted rabbits to a shelter or taking some time and a little effort into re-homing their rabbit.  But many thoughtless and uncompassionate people choose to illegally “set the bunny free” or release them somewhere.  These domesticated rabbits do not have the instincts for survival and many die terrible deaths. The few lucky ones that make their way to Sweet Binks endure surgeries and sometimes months of rehabilitation. This puts tremendous costs on Sweet Binks that are not compensated through adoption.  Thankfully, Sweet Binks has many wonderful members and supporters that assist financially and help us care for these poor buns.
We can not stress the importance of teaching others that setting rabbits loose is not acceptable. People who purchase rabbits or any other living creature need to take responsibility for the proper relinquishment of unwanted pets. We hope you will choose to help educate others of this as well.  Pet homelessness is a crisis and rabbits are included.  In 2005, Sweet Binks alone took in 254 rabbits from shelters or as strays and almost 900 rabbits total in the last 6 years.
There are many cases of rabbit cruelty or neglect throughout the country and throughout our state.  Because rabbits are unique in their status (pets, meat industry, fur, laboratory experimentation and lucky charms), rabbits often do not receive the full attention that other cases of animal cruelty receive. We are are making progress and many shelters are becoming more proactive concerning proper rabbit health and care.  Sweet Binks & the House Rabbit Society do not have animal control capabilities and can not act on cruelty or neglect situations.  If you are concerned about a situation, we suggest you contact your local animal control, the RISPCA or the Animal Health Department at DEM if it is a pet store issue. To read more about reporting animal abuse, click here.

This is neglect. Rabbits need routine nail trims (about every 3 or 4 months) and plenty of exercise and proper diet.  Emmett arrived at Sweet Binks in March 2005.  Emmett never really got run around time in his prior home and he developed sore hocks and was pretty much unable to play anyway because of the extreme nails. Emmett is doing great and is now adopted (along with a big bun named Electra) and has a wonderful home!

This very graphic and horribly fur mite infested bun arrived at Sweet Binks on July 5, 2005 from a local shelter. We called this little guy ‘Possum and he had a long road to recovery. He was likely set-free and he was starved almost to death. He was totally emaciated. He had maggots in his neck from the infestation and he had little fur left in many places.
‘Possum had blossomed into a very affectionate, outgoing and happy bun!  We are sad to say that ‘Possum passed away in June 2007 but he had a couple years of great living... We miss ya, Poss!

On Sept. 10th, this young little guy was found in a nice family’s yard.  They knew he was in trouble and contacted Sweet Binks as all shelters were closed. We immediately got “Victor” here and were at the vet’s office first thing Monday morning. This poor youngster had a major abscess (infection) on his front limb and was in a great amount of pain. 
Update:  Unfortunately, despite Sweet Binks’ and our vet’s best efforts, we were unable to control the infection and Victor passed away 1 week after he arrived here.  Hopefully, someone will read this or others will explain to people that “setting a rabbit free” is just an awfully inhumane thing to do...

On March 4, 2008, a woman caught this poor bun as a stray in her neighborhood and contacted us.  He arrived with severely matted fur and heavy chucks of matted feces, fleas and very hungry. He had obviously been on his own for awhile but he actually is in good health.  However, no domesticated animal should be turned out like this. This is a wonderful rabbit and it really does break our heart that people do these kind of unacceptable acts towards animals. Unfortunately, Huckabee has passed on and he missed very much.

The founder of Sweet Binks has a HUGE soft spot for angora rabbits. Usually when they arrive at Sweet Binks, they are not in good shape. Some angoras get so matted that their fur fuses their legs to their bodies and they are not able to move their limbs or they are so matted they can not defecate normally... If someone you know has an angora and they do not know how to maintain their rabbit, have them contact us. Sweet Binks does offer grooming services and teaching for a reasonable donation to our shelter.

On May 28th, Dave and 4 other buns came to Sweet Binks. Shown here is Dave (named after Dr. David Lambert who kindly saw him immediately) and verified there still was still an EYE in there.... Dave had been attacked by the other male rabbits (un-neutered and very territorial) either before or after they were dumped in  the woods in Lincoln, RI.  Dave is getting the best treatment and we expect he will recover but he may have some serious scars around both eyes.  If you can, please consider helping us financially with buns like Dave. Thank you Belinda, Gael and the Anderson family for helping us with Dave. We really appreciate it and so does Dave.. Dave will soon be adoptable!!!