Blog #57--What We Don't Know May Hurt Us And Others

While channel surfing recently, I stumbled into the middle of a story about a family that decided to nurture a wild baby bunny. I don’t know the circumstances, but they fed and played with it for one week. Possibly so they wouldn’t have an adult rabbit as a permanent pet, the family decided to set it free when it was still far too young to care for itself.

While taking a video of the emotional farewell, the mother told her young children it was time to let the baby return to its mother. It didn’t appear they knew where the bunny’s mother was or even if it was still alive. They simply set it down in their yard and told it to leave. At first the bunny sat motionless, frightened by its sudden aloneness. After all, it had come to assume it had a new family, and now it was being abandoned.

With some coaxing, the bunny finally took off running across the yard toward a bush some distance away. But before it could reach the bush, a hawk flew down, grabbed it and took off with a meal likely intended for its newborn. You can imagine the emotional nightmare for those who witnessed the incident due to the sudden reversal of fortune. Of course, the baby bunny suffered most.

Most people watching the video undoubtedly felt terrible for the family and especially the children. They had grown fond of the bunny and thought they were doing a good deed. But in reality, they made multiple mistakes.

First of all, it was cruel to take the bunny into their house if they had no intention of keeping it. The bunny was probably alone due to trauma to the mother or a rejection by the mother. Caring for it briefly and then returning it to the wild without a chance to learn survival techniques guaranteed the death of the bunny, whether by a hawk, another predator, starvation, disease or multiple other possibilities.

Even if it had found its mother, the mother would likely reject it once it had a human smell on it. Most animals are aware that humans are their most feared enemy, and survival of the fittest requires animals of many species to protect their heartiest offspring at the expense of the weak ones. There was never a chance the bunny would survive without staying with its mother until weaning or without a long-term commitment by the human family.

And not to sound cruel, but rabbits reproduce rapidly, a necessity since most of their offspring do not survive until adulthood. If they all survived, rabbits would overpopulate an area, attracting a variety of predators to reduce the excess. Saving one bunny out of myriad others goes against the laws of Nature and is guaranteed to backfire in the long run.

More than anything, human ignorance has long been one of the most destructive forces in Nature. We say we mean well, and certainly our hearts pour out to those in need. That is especially true for the weakest, most submissive species or individuals within a species. But most of us are not well educated on how Nature works or what various species need to survive. If anything, we do the exact opposite of what is in their best interests while crediting ourselves with showing love toward them. This is circular thinking that guarantees problems.

Humans were by far the biggest single cause of health and behavior problems in the pets I treated when I worked as a small animal veterinarian. Many assumed animals were different than people, so they would treat their animals the exact opposite from how they would treat themselves for the same problem. I provide examples of this in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life.” And inconsistent treatment by the various family members created a stress upon their pets, making them more prone to disease and behavior imbalances. We and all other species in Nature have much in common and have the same basic survival needs.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to reach out and help those in need, whether they are other humans, rabbits, or hawks for that matter. But we need to treat all others as our equals and not favor some over others. And we need to consider what others actually need and not limit our decision-making to an incomplete or self-centered approach that helps us more than them. In this case, both the decision to nurture and the decision to return the bunny to the wild were based on what was best for the family, not the rabbit.

If the family members in question had realized how vulnerable the baby bunny was when left alone to fend for itself, they might have decided either to not care for it in the first place or accept long-term responsibility for its welfare. If they couldn’t care for it, they might have found someone with the knowledge and facilities to do so in their stead. Even if they’d been lucky enough to watch the bunny survive all the way to the bush and then gone inside the house believing the story had a happy ending, there is no guarantee the bunny would have survived another day by itself. Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly isn’t the best way to approach life.

Some of the people who watched the video, and certainly the family directly involved, will no doubt learn to hate hawks despite the fact they have as much right to exist as rabbits or humans, and they are really good at being predators. Most humans are reluctant to blame themselves, and some refuse to consider the possibility. But there is no doubt a lack of awareness by the humans was the reason for the traumatic ending for the baby bunny. After all, the whole thing was videotaped for everyone to witness.

I encourage those who read this to study up on how Nature works before interjecting themselves into situations about which they know little. Without realizing it, they may be doing more harm than good.

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