EDISON PARK — Seven bunnies rescued from the backyard of an Edison Park home are recovering after spending a frigid, snowy weekend outside, said officials with the Red Door Animal Shelter in West Rogers Park.
All of the bunnies are ill with respiratory illnesses, eye infections, sores and intestinal parasites, said Toni Greetis, vice president of the shelter.
"They are all pretty skinny and malnourished," Greetis said, adding that the bunnies — believed to be between 6 and 8 weeks old — don't yet have a full coat of fur to protect them from the cold snap that settled over Chicago this week.
Water bottles in the cages had frozen solid in the minus 15 degree weather, as was a partially eaten apple in one cage and a bowl of pellets in the other, Greetis said.
[Red Door Animal Shelter]
That violates the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act, Greetis said.
The shelter is looking for donations to cover the cost of the bunnies' care as well as for foster homes for them once they recover, Greetis said.
Donations can also be made to Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital, where the bunnies are being treated.
The bunnies were discovered in a hutch in an Edison Park backyard Friday, after a concerned neighbor sent the shelter a photo of a black bunny in the snow, Greetis said.
While shelter officials tried to persuade officials from the city's Department of Animal Care and Control to investigate the conditions the bunnies were being kept in, when shelter officials got no response they went back to the house Monday morning, Greetis said.
"We were able to convince them to give up the seven bunnies, as well as two adult rabbits," Greetis said, but two other female rabbits remained in the Edison Park home.
Greetis declined to identify the home or the owners of the bunnies, saying the family had threatened to sue the shelter for publicly criticizing the way they cared for the bunnies.
"They said the bunnies were part of an accidental litter, and didn't realize they shouldn't be kept outside," Greetis said.
The bunnies had been listed for sale on Craigslist, Greetis said.
If kept outside, domesticated rabbits are unlikely to survive because they won't know how to find food or shelter, Greetis said.
Wild rabbits have brown fur that is similar to the coloring of squirrels, Greetis said.
For more information about the bunnies, call the Red Door Shelter at 773-764-2242.
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