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The problem, he says, is that breeders raise baby rabbits to sell to feed stores at Easter – sometimes dyed in pastel colors, along with ducks and chicks – “and they look like little toys.” The animals are cheap, but the stores make money on the housing and accessories.

“They’re too young to be sexed, so people can end up with babies two months after Easter,” Velazquez says. Buying one for a child as a “starter” pet overlooks the specialized knowledge needed to keep these social, intelligent animals happy and healthy – which is why so many of them die within a year or two of being confined alone to a hutch.

The national House Rabbit Society discourages pet rabbits for children, since they are easily injured, do not like being handled and, as prey animals, can literally die of fright. Rabbits need daily exercise and unlimited access to grass hay. They do best if allowed to range indoors for part of the day, Velasquez says.

“You can litterbox-train them and they make wonderful house pets.” A rabbit indoors can live 10 years or more and can bond with its humans. But “you have to learn their behavior,” he says. “They don’t respond as dogs and cats do.”

Rather than buy a bunny on impulse, the HRS recommends getting a rescue rabbit through them from the Albuquerque or Santa Fe shelters, or at their regular adoption events (check the Facebook page) anytime except Easter and Christmas, when they won’t do adoptions.

“If you adopt from us or the shelter, they’re spayed/neutered and we offer bonding sessions where we can find a mate for your bunny,” says Velasquez, who specializes in this delicate matching process. “They live happy lives that way and it’s amazing to watch two bonded rabbits.”

Thrown together randomly, rabbits may fight, sometimes to death, though successful matches will bond for life. “Sometimes, people buy a companion rabbit and find out pretty quickly they have two single rabbits,” Velasquez says. “That’s when one usually gets turned in.”

Humans domesticated rabbits only about 1,600 years ago, versus 15,000 or more for dogs and 9,000 for cats. They were bred throughout the Middle Ages as a convenient source of meat and fur, and especially by European monasteries after Pope Gregory ruled that they could be eaten during Lent.

As different breeds were developed, it became popular in the Victorian era to show them competitively, as with cats and dogs.

For rescuers and fans today, rabbits hold their own with cats and dogs in their right to be treated as members of the family. “They don’t throw up, they don’t pass gas,” says Velasquez. “Once you understand how to interact with them, they’re really fun and interesting pets to have in the home.”