24/10/2026
⚠️ WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES ⚠️
🐰 THE SAD REALITY OF RESCUE — WAIKATO EXPRESSWAY RABBITS 💔
Over the last few weeks, we have seen several posts about the rabbits reportedly dumped along the Waikato Expressway.
Like many other rescues across Waikato, we are currently extremely overwhelmed with the number of animals in our care. We have received calls asking us to help with these rabbits, but at the time, we simply couldn't get out there. Our hands were full with animals already on-site, and we didn't have the spare time or volunteers needed to sit and monitor traps.
Today, we finally managed to find a little spare time to offer some help. Unfortunately, not every rescue story has a happy ending. 💔
We weren't able to get there in time. We came across one rabbit that had been killed on the road and another that was already too far gone in the grass.
This is heartbreaking, and it's exactly why situations like this need a community-wide response.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT SPCA'S FAULT. Rescues across our region are at full capacity, and we are all doing the very best we can with the limited time, space, funding and volunteers available to us.
We understand that many of you made calls and tried to get help for these rabbits. We appreciate that you cared enough to speak up. But this is the harsh reality of animal rescue: there simply aren't enough hands to help every animal that needs us.
Please don't direct your anger at the rescues who couldn't get there in time. While these rabbits were out there, many of us had other animals in our care fighting for their lives. We cannot abandon the animals already depending on us to attend every new emergency, no matter how desperately we wish we could.
We are human beings, too. We have families, responsibilities, limited resources and only so many hours in a day. We cannot be everywhere at once.
And if you want to be angry, BE ANGRY AT THE PEOPLE WHO DUMPED THESE RABBITS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
There are rescues like ours that will take animals in without judging their owners or asking unnecessary questions. We want people to reach out for help before things get to this point. Yet, despite the options available, animals are still being abandoned, left to fend for themselves and put in dangerous situations that volunteers then have to spend hours trying to resolve.
Every dumped animal creates another emergency for an already stretched rescue community.
💔 DO YOUR PART, WAIKATO.
Please stop judging the people who are trying to help and start supporting the people who are doing the work.
We cannot save every animal, no matter how much it hurts us when we can't. But together, we can make a difference.
PLEASE DON'T BLAME THE RESCUES FOR ARRIVING TOO LATE. BLAME THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THESE ANIMALS IN DANGER, AND HELP US BUILD A COMMUNITY WHERE THIS DOESN'T KEEP HAPPENING. 🐰❤️
— Pet Community House, Waikato 🐾
