Paraparaumu’s Tracey Wakefield rescues rabbits from Arawhata Rd

Myka Wakefield with Latte Junior. Photo / David Haxton

When Tracey Wakefield saw several posts popping up on a community social media page regarding wandering rabbits, she knew something was going on.

There were a couple of posts about domestic rabbits on Arawhata Rd, Paraparaumu, that she had ignored at first, but when someone posted about a dead rabbit it resonated with her.

“If that had been a cat or a dog it would have been taken to a vet for a [micro]chip.”

She went to collect the rabbit, as she wanted to find its owner, and after a bit of a chase around Arawhata Rd, she eventually tracked the rabbit’s home to Linwood Drive.

“We followed the clues all the way down the alleyway to Linwood.

“We knocked and knocked until we found the person’s house.”

Wakefield knocked on the door and asked the owner if they would like to see the rabbit to confirm it was theirs, but they declined.

Then the story unfolded, and Wakefield found out the owner’s bunnies had had an accidental litter, and they all dug out of the property and escaped.

“When the babies reach three and a half months the mother gets territorial and chases them away.”

Myka and Tracey Wakefield with some of their rabbit enclosures. Photo / David Haxton

There were six rabbits in total, including the deceased one and at least one of the four females being pregnant, and after a lot of chasing, crawling under houses, and a big social media push, Wakefield finally caught them all.

“They’re so fast. And once you have it ... they kick and can really scratch you.”

The original owner was too overwhelmed to keep all the rabbits, but since Wakefield already owns six rabbits of her own, and has two foster rabbits, along with several guinea pigs that she’s fostering too, keeping the rabbits was not an option.

She’s fundraising through Givealittle to vaccinate and desex each of the rabbits for new homes, but it’s going to be costly.

Wakefield said once you get into a cycle of un-desexed rabbits having accidental litters it can be difficult to get out of.

Rabbits have very short gestation periods and can give birth every 31 days, with each litter consisting of about seven kits.

“No judgment at all to the person whose bunnies got out ... it’s hard to know if you’ve got a boy or a girl.”

She said while she is at capacity at home and cannot take on any more rabbits, she is more than willing to give advice on getting them desexed and identifying genders.