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When purchasing popular Easter pets – rabbits, chickens and ducks – many adults may imagine the joy children experience when they see the animals alongside their baskets on Sunday morning.
But several area pet enthusiasts said adults instead should be thinking about the animals’ future because the living gifts often become neglected when caretakers lose interest.
For that reason, companion animal manager Lauren Ellis, who works at Petco’s Altoona location, said the pet store does not sell rabbits at any point throughout the year.
“Next to dogs and cats, they are the next most relinquished animal,” she said of rabbits.
She said occassionally, customers may see rabbits in the store, but those rabbits are not ordered.
If a rabbit owner feels the responsibility of owning a pet is too great, he can drop the animals off at Petco, and they are “readopted” to more suitable owners, Ellis said.
“I don’t think some people realize how much care they take,” she said.
Similarly, Jess Eger, assistant at Bubbles, a Tyrone-based dog groomer and former pet store, said when the store was in operation, it stopped selling rabbits during March and April.
“There was a fair amount of people coming in looking for rabbits for their children for Easter,” Eger said.
Eger said she’s heard multiple stories about domestic rabbits being released into the woods because owners were sick of caring for them.
She said domestic rabbits are not equipped with the instincts to survive in the wild.
“It’s just not a good idea to sell them during Easter,” Eger said.
Neither Bubbles nor Petco sold ducks or chicks, Eger and Ellis said.
The birds can be purchased at Duncansville’s Tractor Supply Co., store assistant manager Terry Douglas said.
He said both ducks and chicks are sold for agricultural purposes, not as pets. Ducks are to be used in farm ponds, and chicks are to be used for eggs, Douglas said.
He said they are sold starting at the end of February, extending into early June.
If customers have other intentions, Douglas said it’d be hard to prevent them from trying to keep the birds as pets.
“We have no control over what they do with them after they’re sold,” he said.
Katelynn Dudek, manager at Heads & Tails Pet & Feed Supply, a Bedford pet store, said the store used to sell chicks and ducks but has since ceased doing so to prevent animal neglect.
“We always try to discourage them as pets,” she said, explaining the birds are flocking animals, not meant to be sold individually.
She said when they were sold at the store, customers had to buy them in groups of six ducks or 10 chickens. They were not sold individually. Dudek also said young chicks and ducks are fragile and handling them too often could be harmful.
“We made sure people were buying them for the right reason,” Dudek said.
Dudek said the store markets rabbits year-round, but precautions are taken to prevent neglect.
She said it’s common for the business to sell about 10 rabbits during the month leading to Easter.
“It picks up a little bit,” she said, adding that most rabbits sold during that time are meat rabbits.
Customers are given care tips when purchasing rabbits to ensure they receive proper attention, Dudek said.
She said rabbits should be kept in cages with solid bottoms, their water and food should be freshened daily and they should be groomed once a week.
She said it’s also important to give them chew toys so their teeth don’t grow too long.
“People need to keep in mind they are very active animals,” Dudek said
She said they should be given ample room for mobility, and, sometimes, they can be left to wander outside of their cages because “they can actually be litter trained like a cat.”
If rabbit owners find the care too cumbersome, Dudek said rabbit purchases can be returned, and they are then readopted to other owners.
A representative at the Humane Society of Cambria County Inc. said it also accepts unwanted rabbits. She said society workers used to see an influx around Easter, but now they receive unwanted rabbits year-round.
“We get rabbits a lot,” she said. “Some people find they are a little more hard to care for than they thought.”
Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.