Babes In The Woods

When I put Penny out on her tie-out Saturday night, she came back in with her mouth full of baby bunny. Dead, of course. A tiny one.
Sunday morning I see 4 more baby bunnies hopping around right where Penny noses around the porch, bushes and a hole under the porch.
They are too little to be afraid; I had to pick two of them up and toss them back in the hole where they are living, before I put Penny out on Sunday night.
I don't know how long I can keep her from getting them. But why am I trying to protect them? They will be eating my garden in a month if I keep them alive.
I haven't seen the mama, and actually thought they might be orphans, but they are eating grass, so may be able to make it on their own.
I sure don't want to try to rescue them, but they are so stinking cute!

Wild baby rabbits almost always die when rescued. Was told this by a wildlife rescue something about their hearts. Mother rabbits leave babies alone all day come back at night to feed.Might be hard to do but leave them alone let nature decide their fate.

Stinking cute alright~but I don't want them here. Daughter had one for weeks~feeding it, watering it, taking care and it bit her every chance it got so she turned it loose. I've cleaned and we've eaten the cotton tails but the Jacks are tough and have to be cooked a good while. I like to walk the range with a 4-10 and pop the Jacks when they're flushed. I'd like it if there were no Chipmunks or cute little rabbids inside the fenced~

Nyboy said:

Wild baby rabbits almost always die when rescued. Was told this by a wildlife rescue something about their hearts. Mother rabbits leave babies alone all day come back at night to feed.Might be hard to do but leave them alone let nature decide their fate.

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Yeah, I'm not going to try to rescue them. Right now I am torn between 1: continuing to toss them back in their den before I let Penny out, 2: letting Penny catch them and kill them, and 3: knocking them in the head myself, to hasten their sure (possibly more painful) death anyway. Oh, by the way, I found another one, so there are 5 still alive.

If my dogs find them, they are treats. I look at it as free dog food. I don't care how cute they are, they get in my garden and that just pisses me off.

My son found some kits in the woods and kept going back petting them and carrying them around. I told him mom would leave them but you know mothers never know what they are talking about. He was devastated when they all died because Mama stayed away.

Sounds like Penny is doing her job, keeping home pest free. I agree its much easier if they aren't cute. Maybe think of them as rats cousins.

A few years back I shot 16 rabbits out of my garden before I got all of the ones that were eating the beans as they sprouted. These were not rabbits that happened to be in the vicinity of my garden, but actually inside the fence. Some did make it outside before they were shot. A few times I'd go out with the 12 gauge after supper and shoot two, there were just so many of them. I'm not a fan of rabbits in this immediate vicinity. If I find a nest of babies, they die. If they are small enough I feed them to the chickens, but in any case, they die. A couple of times I've found nests inside my garden.

Around here hawks, coyotes, and foxes are probably the biggest natural rabbit predators. I spend a lot of time outside, which probably keeps the predators away so in that way I'm protecting the rabbits. It's not a huge surprise they'd flourish around here.

Just a thought. How many of these tick-borne diseases might be spread by ticks on rabbits? I didn't realize there were this many tick-borne diseases in the US, but I still was letting the carcass cool off before I disposed of it. That was for fleas though, not ticks.

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/

I loved my GS/Collie X, "Xena" (1998-2008, RIP) but she would protect wild baby birds that fell out of their nests and left baby rabbits alone. We even shot a oppossom that wouldn't stop eating dry cat food in the barn, then realized that they were baby possoms, too, so we shot them, as well. Xena sulked all day.
"Rose" (2007-2016, RIP) and Pyg (2008-present) both raid(ed) rabbits nests and share with the cats. I approve. The sheer numbers of rabbits has increased, while our 9 cats (soon to be 7) have decimated the mice and eradicated the rats that had moved in under my chicken coop. Don't worry, rabbits (European) are NOT on the endangered list.

We recently had the garden humor stories about vegetarians. I'll say all of the following rather than simplify it down to a comment we haven't and don't want to see about kill, maim and destroy.

I just killed 2 jalapeno seedlings, So Lucky. Out of 50, it didn't feel that I had done so badly. The seed leaves just didn't throw off the cases, emerge and grow. Maybe it was because I crowded them in their community container. Whatever the cause, the tiny things are in the compost and the other seedlings with stronger growth are in 4-packs. Hopefully, there will be many more jalapeño living cells because of my activities this morning.

There was a story a couple of years ago about someone nearby who had gone missing. His picture was on television and I felt sure I had seen him, hitchhiking and going out of town as I drove in.

The person I saw had a very intense expression and I was struck by how absolutely gaunt he was. He seemed clean and wearing comfortable clothing but he appeared in real physical distress.

He was found to have died in the woods. If he was the same person I passed, he was starving.

That isn't a life choice. To make that choice would be a sign of mental illness.

We have a need and allow ourselves to eat. We deny other creatures our food. What I hope to do with my time on Earth is to encourage more life than I require to sustain my own. It seems like the best that I can do.

Steve