Meet the woman giving Saskatoon’s abandoned bunnies a second chance

When Peter Cottontail set off down the bunny trail, he probably didn’t picture himself dodging traffic on a Saskatoon street.

But that’s exactly where many of the rabbits that end up at River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue find themselves.

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Barth has rehomed rabbits from the streets of Saskatoon all around Saskatchewan. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

For Donna Barth, Easter doesn’t only bring an egg hunt.

It brings an uptick in phone calls reporting sightings: a flash of fur against melting snow, a lop-ear trembling in the cold, a tiny body that was never meant to survive the wild.

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“I do wildlife rescue,” Barth explained. “I was starting to get more calls for the rabbits, and I couldn’t say no. My name got out there, and I started taking in quite a few rabbits.”

Barth said she has located the owners of many of the rabbits she finds, but very few people actually want the bunnies back. “I think, in all this time, there’s been two rabbits where people are actually looking for them,” she said. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Since starting River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue in 2018, she’s taken in 145 rabbits and counting.

Each one with a story that often begins the same way: alone, abandoned and utterly out of place on the streets of Saskatoon.

“These are tame, pet rabbits. Domestic rabbits,” Barth said. “I think a lot of people release them.”

“If this rabbit does not work out for you, for any reason, I will take it back,” Barth said. “Because I want the rabbit to be safe and happy and not stuck in a little cage.” (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

And the question remains, one that doesn’t fit neatly into an Easter basket:

Why?

Part of the answer is misunderstanding.

Barth said domestic rabbits typically live six to 12 years. These pets are a long-term commitment. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

“I bet 99 per cent of the public don’t know the difference between a domestic rabbit and the wild rabbits,” she said, referring to the snowshoe hares and jackrabbits that are so common in the city.

“I think they see the wild rabbits out there, and they’re like, ‘You know what? It can just go live outside, because all these rabbits are out there,'” she noted.

That assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.

Barth makes it very clear that the rabbits she rescues are not the snowshoe hares and jackrabbits that are so common in Saskatchewan. These are domestic rabbits that are not adapted to surviving life in the wild. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Wild rabbits are built for survival. They change colour with the seasons, growing white coats in winter. Domestic rabbits don’t.

“They stay the same colour,” she said — bright, visible, vulnerable.

Some are even less equipped.

“Some of the breeds are bred for that velvety soft fur, so they don’t have the guard hairs. And the guard hairs are what protect them from like the rain and the wind and all that stuff. They become sponges. They won’t survive outside.”

Many owners even have misconceptions about the kind of diets required by these little critters. “Rabbits can’t get rid of gas. They can’t burp,” Barth explained. “People think rabbits eat carrots. Carrots are really high in sugar, so if you give them too much carrot, it can cause gas in them.” (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

And then there are the lop-eared rabbits, whose floppy ears can’t protect them from the cold. “They can’t tuck their ears back, so their ears are going to freeze.”

Barth noted that around Easter, rabbits are often seen as seasonal gifts — soft, quiet, easy.

But what people expect and what they actually bring home doesn’t always line up.

“You know those little pet store cages… people buy them because they say ‘rabbit cage’ on them,” she said. “I use those as litter boxes.”

Barth has been involved in wildlife rescue in Saskatchewan for years. With a passion for bunnies, it was a natural shift to officially start a rabbit rescue in 2018. The rescue is based on her farm near Borden, with Saskatoon’s Janae Brumwell helping behind the scenes. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Rabbits, she explained, aren’t meant to live confined in small spaces. There are other surprises that come with these bundles of fur, too.

“I have a lot of people saying I didn’t know it was going to get that big,” she said. What starts as a tiny bunny can quickly grow into a 15-pound animal.

Lop-eared bunnies look cuddly and cozy, but they struggle to stay that way when released into the wild. “They can’t tuck their ears back, so their ears are going to freeze,” Barth explained. (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Not only do they grow big, but they can live six to 12 years, which means a rabbit is a long-term commitment.

When the reality of their care doesn’t match the initial expectation, these little hoppers often get released. That’s when Barth steps in.

“They need things to chew on, because their teeth continuously grow,” Barth explained. “So they’re kind of like beavers. But they’re not rodents. They’re actually lagomorphs. Totally different.” (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

She rehomes them, carefully, thoughtfully, across Saskatchewan.

“When they come in, I get them all spayed and neutered,” she said.

Barth has all of the bunnies she rescues spayed and neutered. “They can have a litter up to a dozen, and they can start breeding by four months old,” she explained. “They can have a litter every 28 days.” (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Then comes the matchmaking.

“I basically give people a whole list questions… Do you have children?… Do you have pets in the house?”

Some rabbits crave attention. Others fear it. Some will thrive indoors; others need space. Barth even asks to see where they’ll live: “I do ask for a picture of their enclosure.”

And there’s one promise she always makes: “If this rabbit does not work out for you, for any reason, I will take it back. Because I want the rabbit to be safe and happy and not stuck in a little cage.”

Barth said rabbits require extra care when being handled by their owners. “A lot of people handle rabbits like cats. But if they drop, they don’t land on their feet like a cat,” she said. “And if they’re in your arms and they kick out, they can actually break their backs doing that.” (River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue/Facebook)

Peter Cottontail never planned to hop onto a Saskatoon street.

But for the domestic rabbits that do, that’s where Donna Barth finds them.

And at River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue, the bunny trail doesn’t end in a basket.

It ends with a second chance.

Easter brings more than egg hunts — it brings abandoned pet rabbits. Since 2018, Donna Barth with River Haze Street Rabbit Rescue has rehomed 145 domestic rabbits found on Saskatoon streets. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)