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Get Involved! The RWAF may appear to be a large organisation with offices and paid employees, but in reality we are a small group of volunteers carry out our work for the RWAF in our spare time. We are proud that we punch well above our weight, but we wish we had the resources to do more to help the thousands of domestic rabbits who lead miserable lives. If we had more help then we could help so much more. Imagine if it was your beloved bunny… Next time you watch your happy, healthy rabbit investigating its large exercise area, or snuggling up to its partner looking the picture of contentment, imagine it sitting on its own, staring at the inside walls of its small hutch for hours, weeks, months. For years. It’s a heartbreaking thought isn’t it? Then, along with the loneliness and frustration of solitary confinement, imagine it has an untreated case of mites, maloccluded teeth or flystrike, imagine it baking in direct sunlight during the summer, or uncovered and freezing in the winter. That’s just a few of the horrible things that countless rabbits endure because their owners don’t bother taking responsibility for the animal they’ve taken on. None of us could bear to imagine our own pets in that kind of state, but most of us don’t look past our own pets. It’s time we did. It’s time we started thinking about those other neglected and abused rabbits – it’s time to help them. This page shows the different ways that an increasing number of members are adding their weight to the struggle to improve the lives of pet rabbits in this country. Please have a look and see if there’s anything you think you could help with. We’re not asking for a big commitment, just whatever time you can spare. If everybody does a little, then we can make a lot of difference. Active Member Forum We have set up an online forum to allow our members to talk to each other and to the RWAF committee. It’s a great place to propose and discuss ideas and to seek and give advice. Perhaps you’re considering doing a stand at a pet shop (see ‘Awareness Days’ below) and want some pointers from someone who has done it before, just log in to the forum and ask! To register for the forum please email Lizzie@rabbitwelfare.co.uk with your name and membership number. By registering, you won’t be committing to any activities, it will just mean you can start reading postings by other members, and raising your own topics if you wish. Outreach Officers Outreach Officers are members who sign an agreement to attend a certain number of events a year to raise funds for the RWAF, and raise awareness of what rabbits need to lead the lives they deserve. Take a look at our Outreach Officers page to see what they’ve been up to. Becoming an Outreach Officer isn’t for everyone, and many members find they don’t need a title in order to get involved; preferring just to help out when they have the time. We really don’t mind either way, we’re just grateful for any help we can get. Awareness Days The best way to get a message across to somebody is simple, just talk to them! If you look at their page, you will see that our Outreach Officers main activities are visiting pet shops, vets, schools, WI meetings - anywhere there could be rabbit owners - and giving advice on how to give rabbits the lives they deserve. Talking directly to owners means that the message goes straight to where it’s needed, and it really does get results. We often get emails and calls from people telling us they have seen one of our Outreach Officers or active members holding an awareness day, and want to let us know that they have booked their rabbit in to be neutered and will soon be looking to adopt a companion for their bunny from a rescue centre. Or that they have taken the advice to build a bigger enclosure for their rabbits, who now have a whale of a time investigating their lovely extra space, and generally bouncing around. It’s a fantastic feeling to know that you have directly improved the life of a rabbit. So what are Awareness Days? What do they involve? Well, it’s very simple. Find a place where you think the message of the RWAF would be worth hearing, and either speak directly to them - for example, if you know your vet quite well you could suggest holding a rabbit evening where people bring their rabbits in and you can give advice and hand out leaflets while your vet gives free check-ups. The vet should like it because it should mean more business for him, so everyone’s a winner. Or alternatively we could contact the venue on your behalf, for example, we have an arrangement with the national chain, Pets at Home, in which they let our members set up a stand in their stores on a Saturday afternoon, to give advice and hand out leaflets to customers. These awareness days are arranged by the RWAF with the head office of Pets at Home who then let the local store know. Once the date is agreed it’s just a case of us providing you with leaflets, fluffy ‘bugs’, balloons, posters and a collection box and you’re ready to go. It’s all about common sense; nobody expects you to be an expert on rabbit behaviour or physiology. It's just about trying to point out to people that they will get more out of their pet if they put more in. A rabbit kept cooped up in a hutch all day is no fun, but a rabbit investigating its run or snuggling up to its partner is something else entirely. Many people don't know that just by putting a cardboard box with a hole cut at each end inside a run will give the rabbits loads of extra stimulation, and give them a DIY door-widening project! You will find that many people will ask why their rabbit is aggressive, in most cases the answer to this is that neutering is in order. You can then add that once their rabbit has been neutered, then the owner should start considering finding a friend for their bunny, and the best place for that is a rescue centre. As well as your own common sense and experience of giving your own rabbit a happy life, you will also be armed with leaflets that you can give out and refer to. If you don’t know an answer to a question then nobody will mind if you say so. You can refer that person to the helpline, give them a leaflet or take their details and pass on their question to the RWAF committee. Many members and Outreach Officers find that they enjoy Awareness Days more if they do them with a like minded friend, or as a group. We are always keen to put members in touch with other members in their area so please contact us if you want some help with this. Or perhaps use the Active Members Forum. For more guidance please see our Awareness Days page. Tell Us What You Can Do Often we have projects where we need the help of people with certain skills. So if you are good at administration, PR, accountancy, or have another specialist skill that you feel you could share to help rabbits then please get in touch. Next time a project comes up where your skills could be needed then we’ll contact you and see if you are able to help. If we have a good list of members with various skills then it will allow us to consider more projects that help improve the lives of rabbits, projects that we might otherwise rule out due to lack of resources. Please note that by contacting us you are not committing to anything, you are just registering your interest. Donations We are always grateful for any donations we receive. All donations go towards allowing us to continue and improve our work to raise the standard of living for domestic rabbits in this country. If you are a UK taxpayer then you can increase your gift, at no cost to you, by giving your consent for us to claim Gift Aid on your donation. Please Give Now. Sponsored Events/JustGiving If you read Rabbiting On, you will have seen some examples of members raising money through sponsored runs, bungee jumps, sky dives, even by sponsored tattoos! We find that more and more of our much needed funding comes from events like this. So put your thinking cap on, is there something you could do to raise money to help rabbits? We’ve now registered with the online donation site, Justgiving, which makes it even easier to raise sponsorship. Once you’ve settled on an event just go to www.justgiving.com and follow the instructions. On the ‘Find a Charity’ page type RWAF and click ‘search’, and there we are. Justgiving do take a 5% commission on donations, but it’s a good deal easier than passing a sponsor form around, and in most cases you’ll probably raise a whole lot more doing it online because you can send the link to friends and relatives who don’t necessarily live nearby. Online sponsorship can be great, but some people prefer the more traditional sponsorship form. If you would like a form then please call the helpline on 0870 046 5249 and we’ll be happy to send one out. Or you may prefer to download one here. Other Fundraising You don’t have to do a major event like running a marathon or jumping off a high bridge to raise money for the RWAF, you can also raise much-needed cash in smaller ways. For example, many members hold car boot sales, cake sales in their workplace, or hold a raffle of donated items or a dress-down day at their office. Every little really does help, and it can be lots of fun. For a more detailed list of hints and tips please see our Fundraising page. Make your thought really count! We are delighted to announce our new fundraising initiative that not only raises money for The Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund, but helps the environment too! We have teamed up with CharityGreetings.com, who provide an eco-friendly and charitable alternative to greeting cards. So if you prefer clicking your mouse to licking a stamp, please send a charity greeting to support the RWAF and make your thought really count. Go to www.charitygreetings.com/rabbitwelfare to choose from a huge range of designs and occasions. Each ‘card’ costs £1.99, with £1 going straight to the RWAF to help us help rabbits. And there’ll be no need to worry about the Christmas post! Charity Flowers Whether it's as a thank you; for those special occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas; or simply as a way of letting someone special know you're thinking of them, it's always a pleasure to give and to receive flowers, whatever the time of year. Charity flowers are the UK's only flowers by post service wholly owned by a charity and where all of the profits are donated to charitable causes. So every time you send flowers by Charity Flowers Direct, you are giving pleasure to someone and 15% of the cost will go to the Rabbit Welfare Fund. All the bouquets are packed in a presentation box together with a cut flower care leaflet and your own personal message. The flowers are then sent by first class post and are usually delivered within 48 hours. It's so easy to order: Via the Website www.charityflowers.co.uk 24 hour order HOTLINE 08705 300600 PetMillions - Enter a fun competition AND raise funds for the Rabbit Welfare Fund at the same time We are pleased to be connected with a fundraising idea which will help raise much needed funds for the Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund, which of course means we can help more rabbits. Petmillions is the world’s premier online pet contest. Not only will the RWF receive a percentage of all entry fees, you can also win cash prizes. Please click on this link to support the RWF and find out more about PetMillions. Support the RWF via eBay Clean out that closet or loft - you can sell practically anything on the auction website eBay and donate a percentage of your proceeds to the RWF Now you can sell an item on eBay and donate from 10% to 100% of the final sale price to help us to improve the quality of life of pet rabbits in the UK How Does It Work? eBay has partnered with MissionFish, a not for profit service provider, to create the eBay for Charity fundraising programme which makes it easy for charities to benefit from trading on eBay. While listing an item on eBay you can choose to donate a percentage, or all, of your item's final selling price to the RWF. Your item will feature a charity ribbon, our name and logo and the percentage you are donating so that buyers know that they are supporting a worthy cause. To start: Everyclick.com Imagine if you could raise money for the RWAF just by browsing the web? Well. we've teamed up with the internet search engine, everyclick.com to do just that. Everyclick donates money to your selected charity whenever you use the site to search the web. All you have to do is go to www.everyclick.com, and click on ‘select the charity you would like to support’. Then type ‘rabbit’ and click ‘search charities’ and you should see British House Rabbit Association Rabbit Welfare Fund listed at the top. Click on ‘select your charity’ – register your name, address and email and you’re away! Why not set it as your homepage? Then every time you search the web you’ll be raising money to allow the RWAF do more to help rabbits. RWF Collection Boxes If your vet's surgery, garden centre or a local pet shop hasn't got an RWAF collecting box, why not ask them if they would take one? To obtain a collecting box please telephone the helpline on 0870 046 5249 (between 2.30 – 10pm) or e-mail: Once in place you will need to check the box regularly, emptying when necessary and sending the money to the RWF. We would like to thank those members who have already placed a collection box and sent the donations to the RWAF. And if you haven't checked on any of your collection boxes for a while, now may be a good time! Every penny raised is vital. Think you can help in other ways? We’re always open to suggestions, so please contact us. |