ORLANDO, Fla. – As far as Florida legislative issues go, pet rabbits probably don’t leap to mind as a priority.
State Rep. Katherine Waldron acknowledges this. She says homeowner’s insurance is the No. 1 issue for her constituents, the issue she gets the most calls about. The Palm Beach Democrat is hoping to file one of the many property insurance bills on the agenda for the annual legislative session in Tallahassee, which begins Jan. 9.
“So we’re tackling that, as well. I mean, that’s absolutely an issue. And there’s other big issues, too. But you know, as much as possible, you want to pay attention to as many issues as you can and move them forward,” Waldron said.
And when colonies of pet rabbits in Florida neighborhoods, digging up lawns, chewing up wires and breeding like — well, you know — make national news, Waldron says something should be done.
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Waldron’s bill in the Florida House, HB 701, reins in pet rabbit sales in several ways:
- Banning sales of rabbits at pet stores during March and April, around the Easter holiday
- Banning sales at flea markets and along the side of the road
- Requiring better monitoring of rabbits at pet stores
- Requiring microchipping so that pet rabbits found in the wild can be returned to the owner or store
“The bill doesn’t prevent anybody from owning rabbits,” Waldron said. “It just makes it a little more careful process, a more thoughtful process, and I think the more people who are educated about what goes into taking care of a rabbit, the better we will be.”
Kathy Harter, treasurer of Orlando Rabbit Care and Adoption, says the bill will help reduce the number of people who get rabbits as impulse buys or starter pets for kids, unaware of how much work they can be, and then later let them loose in the wild.
“People often think rabbits are cute little cuddly things,” Harter said.
“Somebody gets to the point where ‘I bought this rabbit. It’s not for me, what do I do with it?’” she added. “Well, most of the rabbit rescues are full. They’re at they’re at or above capacity. And then they go to the public shelters and they’re like, well, we don’t help rabbits. And a lot of people will say, ‘Well, I see rabbits outside. I’ll just let this rabbit go.’ Well, domestic rabbits are different than wild rabbits, and they weren’t bred to survive outside.”
Adding to that, it’s difficult to determine the sexes of young rabbits. A person may think they are getting two rabbits of the same sex, but then discover the rabbits were of opposite sexes when there is a fresh litter of babies.
A female rabbit takes 30 days to give birth and can also get pregnant the day they give birth.
Turn two rabbits loose in a neighborhood, and Harter says you can have dozens of rabbits in a matter of months.
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That’s what happened in Orlando’s Azalea Park neighborhood in 2022. ORCA, with the help of animal services and the sheriff’s office, wrangled some 35 rabbits from a neighborhood that started when someone let some rabbits loose there.
“It took several attempts, they can be very good escape artists,” Harter said. “And we worked with (Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando) who let us use some of their space, we worked with Orange County Animal Services, which helped us with some funding, and we took them to a spot and got them vetted, there were some with disease. There were several that were pregnant.”
Harter says they also found 15 dead rabbits in a backyard, likely because they were killed by a frustrated neighbor.
Harter says last year, ORCA had 400 requests to take in 700 rabbits in the Central Florida area. The rescue, which runs with a volunteer network, currently has about 100 rabbits in its care.
Many of the county-run animal shelters don’t take in rabbits, which means it’s left to the 10 to 15 rabbit rescues in the state to handle unwanted rabbits, and they are stretched thin.
In Wilton Manors, a rescue had to come in and remove rabbits last summer, where neighbors say a breeder released the rabbits when they moved away. They believed there were hundreds of rabbits.
In Cooper City, a neighborhood faced a similar problem in 2022. Harter said there have been other rabbit colonies in Miami and the Tampa area.
Still, not everyone understands why this bill is necessary.
Waldron said she’s been mocked by friends. And she recognizes that people may not understand why she would focus on this bill when there are more pressing issues in Florida, like property insurance.
She also recognizes that lawmakers, who will be looking at more than 1,000 bills during the annual 60-day session, may not get to her bill either. Sometimes it takes years for a bill to finally pass a legislative session.
But Waldron, who was in 4-H as a kid and had two rabbits, is in it for the long haul.
“I had a lot of animals growing up, but rabbits were the cutest,” Waldron said.
A companion bill in the Florida Senate, SB 1426, was filed on Friday.
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