A juvenile in New Hampshire is expected to be charged with animal cruelty after two kayakers discovered a rabbit with a rope around its neck.
“The rabbit is extremely lucky that somebody noticed and took the effort to help her out, because she wasn’t going to make it otherwise,” Matthew Cobb, a veterinarian currently caring for the rabbit, told WMUR.
Around 4:30 p.m. on July 7, Michael Eaton saw a rabbit trying its hardest to keep its head above the water. Michael paddled his kayak over to the drowning rabbit and realized it had a rope attached to its neck.
“It was pretty panicked when I pulled it in my kayak,” he told the Union Leader. “I couldn’t believe when I pulled on the rope and found a dumbbell tied to it.”
He spotted Mike Lothrop, who was nearby fishing in a kayak, and asked if he had a knife to free the rabbit. Luckily, he had a knife and the two were able to cut the rope and five pound dumbbell from the rabbit’s neck.
The kayakers contacted police and the Raymond, New Hampshire police responded to the call. The rabbit was then transported to Candray Pet Care Center where it has continued to receive care.
“Animals will fight awful hard to stay alive, and she obviously tried hard,” Matthew said. “She was pretty stressed and had clearly inhaled some of the river water. That was her biggest medical issue.”
While the female rabbit, who is estimated to be between one and two years old, is doing well according to a press release, she’s not in the clear yet.
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She’ll be closely monitored for a few days before vets are able to give a more accurate prognosis.
“I’m concerned about pneumonia. That’s hard to beat in a rabbit because they don’t handle antibiotics well, so I can’t comfortably say that absolutely she’s going to be okay, but I think the odds are she will be.”
“There’s a million better ways if you don’t want to have an animal to get rid of it, and if there was some other motivation, I can’t begin to understand it.”
This is so horrible!
I hope the rabbit continues to improve and survives. I can’t even imagine if she dies.
Please share on Facebook. Animal cruelty like this HAS to stop!
