To all Rabbit Sanctuaries, Rescuers and associates,
 May 26, 2007

 Sadly, it has come to my attention that Rabbit Haven as a shelter and
 myself in particular have been the subject of much controversy in the
 past few weeks. As founder and director, I feel that it is time to
 set the record straight.
 
 On October 6, 2006 we welcomed 173 rabbits from the Reno rescue.
 These rabbits were delivered by Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
 complete with health certificates. We were excited to help out with
 this rescue and relied heavily on the reputation and goodwill of Best
 Friends. Approximately two weeks after the rabbits were released into
 the "warren" I found the first dead bunny. As the weather turned
 worse, I found more sick and dying bunnies. I didn't know why they
 were getting sick. They had been certified "healthy".
 
 In January I contacted Best Friends because we were starting to run
 up some very large vet bills and had been told that the rabbits had
 or were exposed to E. cuniculi. I asked Rich Crook if there had been a
 problem with EC in Reno? He told me that he had seen the same
 symptoms that I was describing in Reno. I asked why we weren't told
 of this disease, he had no answer. I said that I needed some help. It
 appeared that all of the rabbits could become symptomatic. Dr. Miller
 was sent to our sanctuary in Feb. He assessed the situation and wrote
 a report to Best Friends, cc'd to us. He stated that there were a
 large number of sick rabbits in our clinic (28) and that we were in
 dire need of financial help and needed manpower. I was the only
 person handling these rabbits in order to limit exposure to our RH buns.
 
 When the rabbits started getting sick I lost three volunteers, they
 were fearful of contracting the disease or taking it home to their
 own rabbits. Now I was more short handed. Best Friends sat on that
 report for five weeks. After repeated pleas, we were told that help
 would be on the way. We also were advised by our vet, Dr. Maas, that
 we would need to catch and confine all of the rabbits in the warren.
 In a whirlwind of activity, we purchased a large army tent, erected
 it, wired in the sides and floor and divided it into pens. We also
 built a barrier fence to surround the tent. At this time I was caring
 for 48 sick and down rabbits in my clinic and a cordoned off section
 of my barn. Around the first of April help arrived in the person of
 Aubrey. She was fantastic! All too soon Aubrey saw that the job was
 too big for the two of us and called for more help. Chris arrived
 about a week later. She too was wonderful. We were surprised to see
 her, as no one told us she was coming. Things got crazy after that.
 Meds were ordered, hay brought in, and we began to catch the rabbits.
 Rich and the motor home arrived on April 16th. New help came with them.
 
 We never knew who was leaving or arriving after that point. Dr.
 Miller returned to assess the buns as they were caught. My entire
 facility was taken over. It was difficult to even care for my RH
 buns. After a week of complete chaos, Rich, Dr. Miller and Aubrey
 left. About half of the buns were caught and being treated. No one
 was able to come up with a treatment protocol that made sense, so I
 formulated the protocol based on our vet’s recommendations. Elisha and
 Tammy were left to help me catch the rest of the rabbits, medicate
 and care for them. So many things went wrong from there on out, it is
 hard to describe. I was told by the girls that they knew the rabbits
 were sick and never should have been sent anywhere. They also said
 that they treat the Best Friends rabbits 3 to 4 times a year for EC.
 It became apparent that the treatment was not working for all of the
 buns. More buns were falling ill and I was told that under the
 circumstances I should plan to catch and treat these guys at least 3
 times a year. It took four weeks to catch them all. The treatment
 lasted four weeks, I could not manage this. I was starting to have
 doubts about keeping the rabbits at RH.
 
 During this month, Norman, my English lop became ill. He died,
 leaving Hannah who soon became very ill too. An infection had gone to
 her lymph nodes and abscessed. Angie, my co-director, took her home
 prior to seeing Dr. Maas. The end result was that Hannah was
 diagnosed with an unknown, to our area, strain of a virulent form of
 Pasteurella. This was the beginning of our nightmare! All of the
 bunnies in the room where Hannah was housed became sick, many of them
 died. These were Angie's personal kids. Bella, Zippy, Ellie and Chai.
 All died from this strain of Pasteurella. At some point, I carried it
 into my own home. My Springer, my best buddy, died as well. Rosie,
 his mate, is in recovery. Hannah is hanging in there. The losses were
 too great. We could not continue to risk the lives of our bunnies. We
 made the terribly hard decision to ask Best Friends to take the Reno
 rabbits back to Utah. We also decided to close our shelter. Boarders
 and adopters were turned away; we could not risk spreading this
 horrible illness.
 
 In the beginning I had the utmost respect and admiration for Best
 Friends. As time wore on, that respect and regard has been destroyed.
 I trusted their integrity. Now I see that they have none. Rich said
 that he would be on site on Friday, the 18th, a truck was to be here
 to pick the rabbits up soon after. He told me there might be a couple
 of weeks delay as they needed to get health certificates to transport
 the rabbits. At this point we were not sure what was to happen or
 when. The next I heard was that the truck was to leave on Wednesday
 the 16th and arrive Friday. Imagine my surprise when I get a call on
 Tuesday, the 15th, at 9:05 A.M., saying that he was on site. He told
 me that he had a vet in to sign the health certificates. I asked when
 he was due? Rich said that he had come and gone already. Dr. Singbeil
 had come in, assessed all 139 remaining rabbits, including the down
 and symptomatic ones and had issued certificates. Dr. Singbeil also
 took at least one rabbit from my care and euthanized him. I gave no
 permission to do this. Things only got worse. On Wednesday, the 16th,
 Rich knew that I had to be in court all day on a family matter. He
 called and left me a message that the truck would be arriving in 3-4
 hours. By the time I got the message, Best Friends had loaded about
 half of the rabbits into the truck. The woman who drove the truck and
 Jim, the repair man, were unfriendly and destructive to our
 enclosure. Elisha and Tammy returned with the last rabbit to be
 caught. They had taken him up to Dr. Singbeil for a health
 certificate. On the way they stopped at Dr. Maas's office and
 demanded the rabbit that we had taken in for treatment. They had Dr.
 Singbeil euthanize that rabbit too. I do not know how many rabbits
 were euthanized; I do know that they brought back at least two empty
 carriers. At 4:3o on Wednesday, they all left. I was heart broken. I
 had tried so very hard to help these rabbits. I worked 16-18 hours a
 day for the past 8 months.
 
 Rich stayed for a while to discuss our financial concerns. Most of
 our supplies were used up. We now had over an acre of our property
 that was contaminated and the area where the tent sat was super
 contaminated. They took the tent. No one had any answers as how to
 decontaminate the ground. Maybe Vanodine, maybe bleach. No info on
 testing the ground to see if it was clear. We were allotted payment
 for some hours and 150 lbs of laundry soap to do the job. This is a
 mess. Who is going to pressure wash all of the feeding stations,
 houses and the fence? Who is going to spray the Vanodine and spread
 laundry soap on the ground? Who is going to decontaminate the little
 bunny house, put away all of the wire and clean up all of the x-pens,
 which were bought for resale and used without our permission? Where
 do we put two tons of contaminated hay and feed? The list goes on and on.
 
 As awful as all of this was, I was relieved that it was over, or so I
 thought. I received a call from Angie, telling me that the Best
 Friends truck carrying all of the rabbits had been stopped at a
 border crossing. This must have been on Wednesday night or Thursday.
 We can get no information as to the status or condition of the
 rabbits. We don't know if they are in Washington, Oregon or Idaho. We
 do know that they only had one days worth of medications and a little
 feed and veggies. They were two to a carrier and would need cleaning
 soon. This is when I really began to loose respect for Best Friends.
 No one would tell us where or how the rabbits were. Rich would not
 return my calls. Tammy adopted a little mini rex from us, where was
 Tilly? Was she mixed in with the sick rabbits? No answers! We have
 spent the last 10 days sick with worry. The generic posting, cc'd to
 us was of no comfort. Why are we being shut out?
 
 These rabbits came here carrying EC and a form of Pasteurella that
 was lethal to our rabbits. I can understand that they might not have
 known of the Pasteurella, but they did know about the EC. We feel
 that we were deceived.
 
 Now comes the unbelievable part, WE ARE THE BAD GUYS! Concerned
 rabbit folks have called Best Friends asking about the rabbits. They
 are given only generic answers, no solutions and hear a lot of
 derogatory things about me and Rabbit Haven. Today, the woman driving
 the truck with the bunnies in it butted into a private conversation
 between two HRS people at a fund raiser in Las Vegas stating that she
 drove the truck and what they were saying was a lie. She told this
 person that Best Friends took the rabbits from me because I was not
 caring for them. She also stated that I called the Utah state vet and
 told him that the health certificates were bogus. This woman said
 that I was a hoarder and that Tammy adopted Tilly, the mini rex,
 because I kept her in a tiny cage, in terrible conditions and that
 she would be euthanized because she was cage protective. I was called
 many unpleasant names and called a liar. This is absurd! As the fates
 would have it, Maria is a friend of mine. She is one of the HRS
 people that the driver confronted.
 
 Best Friends screwed up! In their effort to put a lid on this, they
 have resorted to defamation, name calling and flat out lies. They
 need to step up and take responsibility for sending all of those
 bunnies all over the U.S. and not telling the caregivers that were
 exposed to EC, coccidia and god knows what else. We have paid a
 terrible price for trying to help Best Friends. Defaming our
 character and telling lies about us, and about the health of the
 rabbits is not constructive. If any one of you have questions
 regarding the quality of our care or the condition of our shelter
 please feel free to drop in, unannounced, at any time. If you have
 questions that I have not addressed in this letter, please feel free
 to E-mail me at:  sue@rabbithaven.org

 The end result of our efforts are 51 dead bunnies, an empty, contaminated
 warren, financial distress, stress over the fate of our Reno rabbits,
 broken hearts and a complete loss of faith in Best Friends. Was it
 worth it? No Way! Please let Best Friends know how you feel. Perhaps
 they will change their ways and make rabbits as important as the dogs
 and cats at their sanctuary.
 
 (Permission to cross post)
 Thank you for your time and support
 Sincerely,
 Sue Brennan
 Director of Rabbit Haven
 http://www.rabbithaven.org/