From HRS: Rabbit Hemorragic Disease Virus (RHDV) is a highly contagious and deadly disease caused by a calicivirus that affects both wild and domestic rabbits. It is not contagious to people or other animals. For the first time, the virus is causing deaths in rabbits and hares native to North America and is spreading rapidly.

Even if your rabbit is kept inside, they are still at risk of becoming infected with RHDV. While RHDV only affects rabbits, the disease can be transmitted to them by people or animals through contact with objects, animals, insects, or predator feces contaminated by the virus.

A sudden rabbit death is suspicious and should be reported to your veterinarian as a possible case of RHDV. Report sightings of sick or dead rabbits to your state wildlife officials; do not touch them.

An annual vaccine is required for continued protection against RHDV. Vaccination is expected to be effective for most rabbits -- it may not prevent the disease in 100% of cases, but if vaccinated, it helps rabbits survive if they have been exposed to RHDV. Bio-security measures should still be taken to protect vaccinated rabbits.

Currently, a vaccine is not widely available in North America. In outbreak areas, special permission is being given by state and federal agencies to veterinarians to import European vaccines. SDHRS is working with several veterinarian clinics in San Diego County to obtain the vaccine. Please contact your veterinarian to inquire about getting your rabbit vaccinated.

Please visit rabbit.org/rhdv/ or email us at hrs@sandiegorabbits.org to keep update with information about the spread of RHDV and how you can protect your rabbit.

Due to COVID-19 and now RHDV-2, SDHRS has had to cut back on many activities, community outreach events to ensure the health and safety of everyone. Despite these challenges, we have continued our work to save the lives of rabbits who would be at risk of euthanasia. We have not stopped taking care of the rabbits at the shelter and in our foster homes and we have not stopped helping our community with their rabbits. Creating a safe environment for the rabbits, staff and volunteers, medical bills as well as funding our work to continue caring for these rabbits did not stop and we could sure use all of your help during these tough times. When you donate to help the bunnies, your generous gift will go twice as far! Thanks to SDHRS's generous board members, your donations made by Mary 31, 2020, up to $5800, will be matched!

We are almost at our goal!!

Please help us provide safe shelter, medical care and love to the rabbits at SDHRS. Every dollar will make a life-changing difference to all of them.

Did you know the SDHRS BunnyStore is officially online? During this challenging time, purchases at the BunnyStore can only be made online.

We have begun implementing our customer loyalty program. All of our current customers were emailed an update to our hay program. Up until June 12, customers will need to send hrs@sandiegorabbits.org, photos of their hay stamp card so we can manually input them into our program. After June 12, 2020, we will be implementing our Carefresh and Oxbow Timothy Pellet rewards program, therefore will no longer be able to manually input the physical stamp cards into our application and we will be unable to honor your physical bunny butt stamp card. To activate your customer loyalty account, please use the link below:

We currently have two sites that sells the SDHRS hay. One site is our main shelter in Kearny Mesa. For those who are purchasing hay, we are limiting the sales to 1 box. The other site is in Encinitas. This location is an 'on your honor' system and does not have any limitations on hay purchases. All proceeds of our hay sales goes to the SDHRS Medical Fund.

Please visit the link below to learn more about our Hay Sales.

Proceeds from every purchase you make goes to the care of the

SDHRS rescue bunnies.

Please visit our online store at the link below.

To learn more about these opportunities come on in to the shelter and talk to one of our team members or check out our website at the links below.

The bunnies need you!

Adoptions

Adoptions will be by appointment only. The application process will still be through our website. Once you fill out your  application , you will get further instructions from our Adoption Coordinator about the process. Please click on the button below to start the application process:

Grooming

We will continue offering grooming, however, we will be offering CURBSIDE grooming. Please allot 30 min for groom time. You can sign up for grooming appointments  here or click on the button below . When you arrive at our facility,please come to the window where you will see a grooming sign. We will then receive your bunny at the window and take them into groom and then bring them out to you. During this time, we will take your payment. Once your bunny has been groomed, we will call you to pick up your bunny at the door.

Boarding

Due to RHDV2, we are not offering boarding services until further notice. We are reaching out to those who have reservations and cancelling.

Volunteer Program

Due to COVID-19 and RHDV2, our on-site volunteer program is suspended until further notice. For questions, please email hrs@sandiegorabbits.org .

Fostering

We are still looking for foster homes. If you are interested in fostering, please click the button below.

SDHRS Families In-Need Program

Thanks to our friends and partners at KW Cages, Oxbow, Supreme Selective and Sherwood Pet Health who so generously donated to our organization, SDHRS is proud to offer clients who have been affected by COVID-19 pellets, hay or bedding (SDHRS discretion). Please fill out the application request  in the link below . This program is intended to help alleviate some of the financial cost associated with purchasing these items. Supplies are limited and will be offered first come first serve. Proof of financial assistance or documentation of how you were affected is required.

Note: We love hearing from all of our supporters, however, we are running on a skeleton crew right now so it may take us a little time to answer your phone calls, e-mails and/or messages via instagram and facebook. We appreciate your patience during this time.

We would love to hear stories about how your bunnies are keeping you company during this challenging time. If you send in your story about how your bunny companions are providing you comfort, we will post it on our social media sites, our next newsletter and/or monthly update. Please use the link below to share your story.

If your company does matching charitable donations, please keep SDHRS in mind. For more information contact us .

For more information about us, visit  www.sandiegorabbits.org .