Easter Rabbits And Chickens: 5 Sure-Fire Ways To Talk Kids Out Of Them

ACROSS AMERICA — Parents, we arm you with these five legit things you tell your kids when they beg for a cute little live Easter bunny or maybe a baby chicken, promising with upturned eyes that they’ll take care of it, and that the fate the poor unfortunate hamster met won’t happen this time if you’ll just say OK.

Even if your child is responsible enough to care for any animal you introduce to the household — and a lot of kids are, and become more so from the experience — you can still legitimately say no to animals that are, face it, messy, disease carriers in some cases, and not always fun to be around when they get big.

The truth is on your side. Arm yourselves.

1. You Don't Really Want A Bunny

Animal welfare advocates say rabbits are third-most abandoned pet and the most likely to be euthanized at shelters around the country. Kids who have done their homework may ask you to show them a number in an attempt to stump you.

They’ve got you there. It’s a setback, but you can explain it.

The Rabbit House Society, a nonprofit group that helps rehome unwanted rabbits, says the abandonment of of Easter bunnies is a bit of a hidden problem because rabbits often don’t appear as their own category, as do dogs and cats surrendered to animal shelters. They’re lumped together with birds, small animals and reptiles.

A 2012 study tracking intake and adoption numbers at four shelters in Massachusetts and Rhode Island over five years supported findings by the House Rabbit Society and Humane Society of the United States that rabbits rank third behind dogs and cats in the number that are surrendered.

So, no matter how fiercely they promise to love and adore the rabbit, statistically, there’s a good chance they won’t.

2. Are You Willing To Give Up Your Allowance?

Totally say this: Cute bunnies can grow up to be unpleasant rabbits.

At about 3 to 6 months, they can turn into "aggressive rabbits behaving badly." In their defense, behavior such as chewing their way out of hutches, clawing at the carpet and doing their business where they're not supposed to are signs of boredom, according to people who know rabbits.

“Proper exercise, litterbox training, and spaying or neutering curbs the problem for most rabbits,” according to Natasha Daly, who explored the problem of rabbits at Easter time for National Geographic in 2017. “But many new owners assume that the undesirable behaviors are the sign of a problem rabbit and get rid of it.”

“Who’s going to change the litterbox?” you may ask.

Or, point out that the cost to spay or neuter a rabbit can be $200 or $300.

If your powers of persuasion are well-tuned, there will be no need to tell the kids that the reason there are domestic rabbits to begin with is that they’re a quick-breeding species prized for generations as a low-fat, high-protein dinnertime staple that, no joke intended, tastes like chicken.

3. But Bird Flu

Kids can learn valuable lessons raising backyard chickens, and spring is the best time of year to get started. That’s a fact, borne out time and again in blogs, published research, and hands-on 4-H and Future Farmers of America projects.

One of your best arguments against chickens is the fact that bird flu is in 24 states, infecting both commercial and backyard flocks and killing 23 million birds. That may be enough to dash any chicken farming dreams.

If that doesn’t work, try reminding them all the bird flu cases can be traced to migratory wild birds, according to the Agriculture Department, and birds are going to fly where birds are going to fly and there’s nothing to be done about it.

Quote Dr. Matt Koci, a virologist in North Carolina State University’s poultry science department, who wrote in an email to The News & Observer: “If you have backyard birds, especially chickens, turkeys, or guinea fowl, you need to keep them away from wild birds as much as possible, and migratory birds especially.”

Ask, “How are you going to do that?”

They may know that part of the chicken farming gig is regularly and thoroughly cleaning chicken houses, coops and other places where the birds spend time. For the best protection, chickens shouldn’t spend time outside because, again, birds are going to fly where they want to fly and, conversely, poop where they want to poop. One of the ways bird flu is spread is through an infected bird’s feces. Your kid's chicken could easily get hit with a lethal bomb while pecking around in the grass.

4. Salmonella, Though

Nevertheless, the children persist. It’s time to play the salmonella and seven days of diarrhea card.

Frequent, thorough cleanings of birds’ surroundings is important with or without bird flu racing around the country. It prevents the build-up of toxic ammonia fumes and mold, and the spread of diseases such as salmonella and campylobacter, which can be fatal to the birds and contagious to people tending the flock.

It’s important to thoroughly wash hands after handling poultry and waterfowl, and to keep an eye on young children who are playing with them to make sure they’re not putting their dirty hands in their mouths.

Salmonella illnesses are unpleasant, but usually not life-threatening — except in some cases of people with weakened immune systems, adults 65 and older, and children 5 and younger, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In most cases, the illness will last four to seven days of eating the contaminated food, with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal cramps.

5. Wouldn’t You Really Rather Have A Puppy?

The kids passed the interrogation. They're good.

They’ve proven themselves to be — like so many children, we want to be sure to point out — to be good, decent kids who are prepared to handle the responsibility of caring for an animal.

Whoever said rabbits and chickens should be the only pets added to a household at Easter time? As the season of rebirth, Easter is a good time to adopt a cat or dog that needs a permanent home.

About 3.1 million dogs and 3.2 million cats are surrendered to animal shelters every year, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Only about a third of each species are adopted, the ASPCA says.

Public and private animal shelters and rescue groups are found in every state in the country.