Copper the Rabbit sits in a cage at the Tacoma-Pierce County Humane Society Animal Shelter, awaiting a date with death on Sunday. He is accused of biting a volunteer and being in poor health.
There are conflicting stories about Copper and the facts surrounding his probable demise.
On one side sits Kathleen Olson, the executive director of the society, who says the rabbit is ill and not acceptable as a pet.
On the other side are thousands of rabbit lovers around the world who have inundated Olson with calls and e-mails seeking clemency for Copper.
Somewhere in between, along with Copper, sits the truth.
Olson says that three dozen rabbits are at the shelter and in foster homes awaiting adoption. All are healthy and warm and fuzzy. But Copper is problematic.
“He was examined by a veterinarian and he says Copper is ill,” said Olson. “He said Copper is drooling, ocular, nasal with a corneal ulcer and is untreatable because he is a bite risk.”
But rabbit rescue groups say that is a lie among ever-changing versions of the story.
According to Sandi Ackerman of Rabbit Meadows, a Redmond-based rescue organization, her group would like to have Copper evaluated by a veterinarian that specializes in rabbits. Olson says that the three vets at the shelter are fully qualified to treat Copper and that an outside veterenarian that is a rabbit specialist is also available.
Ackerman claims that Copper was well enough to frolic outside on Wednesday evening before he bit a volunteer and that suddenly he was deemed too ill for adoption and a candidate for euthanasia.
She says her groups would like to take Copper, but Olson says no. He says Copper is too ill and no veterenarian would ever let him go.
Ackerman says that Olson has a hidden agenda, one that would cut the rescue groups out of the rabbit adoption loop. She thinks that is why Olson refuses to turn Copper over to her group.
“They have a good rabbit program in Tacoma,” Ackerman said. “But Kathleen Olson doesn’t want anyone else involved. She has fabricated this illness story as a part of that.”
Olson says biting should not mean an animal death sentence.
“If that was the case we wouldn’t have any animals,” she said. “Bites are a part of being a shelter. Animals that are stressed will scratch and nip.”
Olson says the decision is final and that come Sunday, Copper will end his quarantine and nibble his last earthly carrot.
Ackerman is frantically seeking an attorney who can get into a courtroom and seek an injunction to stop the euthanasia that will be carried out by a veterinarian.
Olson says that Copper aside, there are 36 spayed and neutered rabbits that can be adopted for $60 each.
“They are companion animals and make good pets,” she said. “We are in the business of finding them good homes, not killing them.”
