FUR RABBITS HOP OVER TO PETCO!

When one door closes another door opens and boy did the doors open for our TEAM-FUR rabbits; Petco doors that is! We are happy to announce that our rabbits have moved to a fabulous room of their very own at Petco located at 855 East Bidwell Street in Folsom, CA! We are now an official adoption partner at Petco’s 24/7 adoption center.

Why the rabbits are no longer housed at Petsmarts 24/7 Adoption Center.

For nine and a half years TEAM-FUR partnered with Petsmart. We housed our rabbits in two Folsom stores and more recently at the Watt/Arden store as part of their 24/7 Adoption Center. Unfortunately, despite having been approved at the corporate level nine and a half years ago, the new Adoption Field Leader, Maria Austin at Petsmart’s Corporate Office, stated “At this time we have not designed a 7 day Rabbit program” but “Rabbits can be brought in on weekends during the day for adoption events but cannot stay overnight in the store”.

We were greatly saddened that Petsmart Corporate didn’t share the same concern for the welfare of homeless rabbits, asked that the rabbits leave, and gave us a list of Animal Shelters where we could take our rescued rabbits. Of course, as a rescue organization we would NEVER take our rabbits back to a shelter.

We appreciate the kindness and support of the managers and employees at the Folsom Petsmarts and will miss them! We especially appreciate the efforts of the local Managers and District Managers who lobbied on our behalf to attempt to reverse the Corporate decision.

Why not just bring rabbits to adoption events on the weekends?

FUR was designed to have rabbits housed as part of a 24/7 adoption center in Petsmart to increase public awareness of these highly intelligent creatures as house pets and to decrease the euthanasia rate at shelters. Rabbits are not like dogs or cats. Potential adoptive families need time to learn about rabbit care and consider rabbit adoption. A person wanting to adopt a rabbit they see at an adoption event on a weekend is likely an impulse adopter who doesn’t know how to care for a rabbit. Impulse adopters often later return or dump a rabbit at a shelter.

To bring rescued rabbits to adoption events only on weekends also requires a large number of volunteers to foster the rabbits until they are adopted. Volunteer foster homes are hard to come by. We have proven that more rabbits’ lives have been saved by being housed at a 24/7 adoption center in a pet store as opposed to a shelter due to the limited space and resources that shelters have to care for rabbits. Potential adoptive families are often reticent to visit a shelter with many homeless animals.

Tick Tock…

With the clock ticking FUR had to quickly decide what to do with the rabbits. We didn’t have enough volunteer foster homes to house all the rabbits that we had at Petsmart and taking them to a shelter was not an option. We were comfortable at Petsmart and had been for over nine years. Although we had been approached for years by Petsmart competitors we felt a loyalty to Petsmart. However, we realized it wasn’t meant to be and that partnering with another pet store would be the best option for the rabbits.

We are over the moon with delight that Petco stepped up and saved the day for the rabbits! Petco has been a longtime advocate for rescue organizations. The Store Manager at Petco, Miranda, was thrilled to have rabbits in the store as part of their 24/7 Adoption Center. The adoption partner application was quickly processed and approved by Petco Corporate. This past weekend FUR moved in to Petco. The rabbits now have a room of their own with room to house even more rabbits! We have educational handouts on rabbit care for the public to take and informational posters on the walls.

Help a homeless rabbit!

Adopt, Volunteer or Foster! Please come visit us in our fabulous rabbit room at the Petco in Folsom, located at 855 East Bidwell Street. If you are interested in adopting or volunteering, please call us at (916) 710-0105 and leave a message or email us at TeamFur@gmail.com. Visit our website to view rabbits available for adoption at https://TeamFur.org.

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

Martin Luther King

Tell Petsmart Corporate what you think about their decision to have FUR rabbits removed from the 24/7 adoption centers after over nine successful years at the Folsom, CA stores number 054 and 1812. Do you think they made the right decision?

PetSmart Charities

19601 North 27th Avenue

Phoenix, AZ 85027
(800) 423-PETS
info@petsmartcharities.org
PetSmartCharities.org