This year, the Bristol Homecoming Festival in Indiana is allowing a carnival-type vendor to give away Live Rabbits as prizes for one of their ring toss games. In addition to being inhumane, this is also incredibly irresponsible. What kinds of homes will these rabbits end up in? What happens when the people who win the game have not done any research and are ill-prepared for how to properly care for a domestic bunny?

The sad fact is that the majority of these bunnies will end up being dumped at the local Animal Shelter once the novelty wears off for the Ring Toss winners. Others may be inhumanely "set free" outside, despite the fact that domestic bunnies can not survive on their own in the wild. And others still may die from improper care and subpar living conditions, as a direct result of unexpectedly winning a live animal in a festival situation where the normal expectation was a stuffed plush or other inanimate object.

Rabbits do not handle stress well. In fact, when a rabbit is stressed by large crowds, loud or unfamiliar noises or environment, bright lights, and being handled and picked up, their bodies excrete excess adrenaline. This happens so that they have the energy to be able to run away. This hormone also speeds their heart rate, can cause heart attack, and their other vital organs to fail, and ultimately may lead to the rabbit's death.

Rabbits are peaceful, private creatures who do not deserve to be treated with no more regard than a stuffed plush prize. No forethought has been given as to what will become of these poor animals once the Bristol Homecoming Festival has packed up and is over.

This is why we at EARTH Animal Sanctuary, together with The Sweet Bunny Project, are calling for an IMMEDIATE END to rabbits being given away as prizes in festival games. We are asking that Cathy Burke, the Bristol Town Council President, shut this practice down immediately, that the State legislators and Governor get involved to make sure that this is never allowed to happen in subsequent years, in any location in Indiana, and we are calling for legislation to be passed that would place a permanent ban on live rabbits given as game prizes.