She got her first pet rabbit, Sasha, about 15 years ago after pet store workers told her the unwanted animal was going to be sold as snake food.
UCLA alumna Michelle Kelly has had a steadfast love for the furry pets ever since.
Kelly, who graduated from UCLA in 2009, is the founder and president of the Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on finding homes for abandoned rabbits and promoting rabbit-care education.
Kelly started her mission to promote better rabbit care in 1998, when she studied Slavic languages and literatures as a graduate student at UCLA.
She started volunteering at the West Los Angeles Animal Shelter after she went there to adopt a rabbit friend for Sasha.
Watching the dogs and cats in the shelter receive better care than the rabbits made her want to get involved, she said.
“Rabbits are the third-class citizens of the animal shelter,” she said while a few of the furry pets hopped around in their pens and chased each other in a nearby room.
As she made her daily rounds in the rabbit room at the West Los Angeles Animal Shelter, rabbits rested on small boxes in their cages, or drank from their water bottles in the air-conditioned room. Spacious, stainless steel cages stood in rows nearby, each housing a furry resident.
Kelly said she realized that rescue centers and animal shelters in Los Angeles are overcrowded with rabbits. Many owners abandon their pet rabbits or turn them into shelters because they don’t know how to care for the animals before adopting them, Kelly said.
Because the shelter often ran out of space to accommodate new rabbits, Kelly temporarily took home many abandoned rabbits. Sunny Bunny, a white rabbit with pink eyes, lived in Kelly’s office when she was studying at UCLA.
Kelly is now a licensed educator of the House Rabbit Society, an international nonprofit rabbit-care organization based in California. Her job is to educate the public about how to properly take care of rabbits and how to understand them, Kelly said.
[media-credit id=4188 align="alignright" width="300"] Michelle Kelly, a UCLA alumna, said she noticed that rabbits were the “third-class citizens” of animal shelters.
The volunteers that work at public shelters with Kelly play an important role in taking care of the rabbits and educating people about them, Kelly said.
Rabbits often get depressed when they have no human contact, said Susann Dillon, a volunteer at the West Los Angeles Animal Shelter.
“A few hours at the shelter means the world to the animals,” she said as a rabbit with soft gray fur and a short tufted tail named Selby rested on her shoulder.
To help improve the well-being of rabbits, Kelly developed a bonding program for owners who want to find their pet rabbit a rabbit friend. Fellow volunteer Anna MacKenzie adopted her rabbit Bohdi’s “girlfriend,” Moksha, after Kelly arranged the two rabbits to go on a date during the program.
“I believe that we can get to the point where we don’t need to put down any more rabbits in shelter in Los Angeles,” Kelly said. “We just need more volunteers.”
Aside from her full-time job as the president of the Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation, Kelly is also the owner of two rabbits, Sasha, a black rabbit named after Kelly’s first rabbit because they resemble each other, and Hop Noodle, whose eye was lost to a cat when he was abandoned.
“Michelle works tirelessly for the rabbits and she has made a difference by saving so many lives,” MacKenzie said. “She really is an inspiration.”
Kelly said that her goal is not only to improve the condition of the animals, but she also wants people to have a good experience with their pet rabbits.
“I try to strike a balance between the best interests of animals and humans,” Kelly said. “It’s a community effort.”