Easter, 2005 - The Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah, gave
away live rabbits to each and every child in attendance of their
Easter brunch. In just days, shelters and rescues in the area were
inundated with calls from the perplexed recipients who didn't know
what to do with these animals that they didn't really want in the
first place.
Using this
contact form,
I sent them a letter expressing my concerns over this unfortunate and
misguided attempt to observe Easter. I got no reply. So I sent the
letter again. I got no reply. Remembering the 14th law of
thermodynamics (the squeaky wheel gets the grease), I resorted to
sending them news articles about rabbits and Easter, the Easter Bunny
poem, outright bitch-mail, and anything else I could come up with,
interspersing them with a shorter version of my earlier email, showing
my frustrations. I got a reply:
Subject: RE:
To: <dlf@cotse.com>
Cc: "Bruce Fery" <bfery@grandamerica.com>, "Ed Box" <,ebox@grandamerica.com>,
"Anthony Bartholomew" <abartholomew@grandamerica.com>
Mr. Fisher,
Thank you very much for your concern and initiative in e-mailing
us about how you feel about our Easter giveaways. Due to your concern
with the giveaways we are looking at other ways to celebrate this
holiday. We apologize if this offended you in anyway.
Thank you very much for your suggestions.
Jonathon R. Watts
Little America
Director of Operations
Dir: 596 - 5770
fax: 596 - 5911
jwatts@grandamerica.com
-----Original Message-----
From: rlindhardt@sinclairoil.com [mailto:rlindhardt@sinclairoil.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 6:06 AM
To: Sales Leads
Subject:
I am quite disturbed that your hotel gave away live rabbits at
this past Easter brunch. Shelters and rescues in your area have
already been inundated with calls from these people who don't know
what to do with the rabbits they didn't want in the first place. I
have written to you many times in regards to his issue, yet have
received no reply. I can therefore only surmise that you do not care
what your customers or the general public thinks. Is this the case? Is
everyone in your hotel too stupid to realize what a bad mistake it was
to give live animals away as if they were door prizes. Do you have
nothing at all to say about this? David Fisher
From: David Fisher
dlf@cotse.com
|
I purposely left all the contact information in the above message in
case anyone else feels the need to contact these folks regarding this
issue (or any other). Fueled by the reply, I sent them the
following message explaining what animal lovers already know all too
well:
To: "Jonathon Watts" <jwatts@grandamerica.com>, <dlf@cotse.com>
Subject: RE:
Cc: "Bruce Fery" <bfery@grandamerica.com>, "Ed Box" <ebox@grandamerica.com>,
"Anthony Bartholomew" <abartholomew@grandamerica.com>
Mr. Watts -
Thank you for replying. As for other ways to celebrate Easter,
chocolate bunnies and stuffed plush toys are the preferred gift, both
for rabbit-lovers and for the general public. People just don't know
what to do with this cute, cuddly little baby who will soon grow into
a real rabbit. Rabbits are high-maintenance pets and require
specialized diets and medical care, and they are chewers so they can
be destructive.
Invariably, what happens when people receive live rabbits that
they didn't already really want, they get rid of them quickly. In
some cases, the rabbits wind up at shelters, which are currently
overflowing because of just this problem. So then people just toss
the rabbit outside, far from home, with the belief that they'll do
just fine on their own. Like, maybe they'll make friends with some
local wild rabbits who will take them in. That never happens. If
someone rang your doorbell some night and told you "my family just
threw me out - can I live with you?" - would you let them through the
door? Well, rabbits wouldn't either.
The average life expectancy of a pet rabbit dumped in the wild is
three days - in that time they will be too afraid to even look for
food, and will eventually be the victim of a predator, a human, or a
car. I'm afraid that your company has comdemned almost all of the
rabbits you gave away to such a fate. Those that aren't dumped will
likely become forgotten about in their outside hutches with no care
and not enough of anything. Their lives will be of prisoners, not
pets.
Please visit these sites for more information on alternatives to
Easter rabbits, and their plight:
http://www.makeminechocolate.org/
http://www.rabbit.org/easter
I've been rescuing rabbits for a decade now, and I can't tell you
how heart-breaking some of their stories are - so many are unwanted
Easter gifts - and we can't rescue them all.
If you have any way of getting in touch with the people at the
brunch who received these rabbits, I urge you to do so to help them
determine what the best course of action is (since I'm sure they're
already wondering what to do). Please give them the contact
information for the local rabbit rescue groups, who may be able to
educate some of them enough to put them in a better position to keep
the rabbits. (If you can get in touch with these folks, let me know
and I'll provide you with as much information as I can about local
rescues that can try to help).
I'm hoping we can do something to improve the odds of these
rabbits before they become more heart-breaking stories.
Thank you for your attention to this issue.
Dave Fisher
|
If I get a response to this message, I'l post it here.
|
