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.
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.”
In 2002 she talked U.C.L.A. graduate Evelyn Jane Walton into setting up
24 X-Pens INSIDE of her Mar Vista home and populating them with 68
rabbits. Each and every week 4960 lbs (2 and 1/2 tons) of brown rabbit
excrement was removed from the floor INSIDE Evelyn’s house and her
brother Lawrence Wesley Harris Jr., a homeless unemployed U.S. Army
veteran with service connected disabilities was who Michelle Kelly had
to take care of her 68 rabbits 24 / 7 FOR FREE for 6 years. He did NOT
volunteer on his own, he was “volunteered” or had to move out of the
house. Every time Lawrence missed his appointments with Los Angeles
County Department of Public Social Services’ Rancho Park office, he lost
his benefits for food stamps and general relief. Evelyn was targeted by
L.A. County Health Department for health code violations related to
housing 68 rabbits inside of her home. Michelle Kelly, all 5 members of
the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors , all 15 members of the Los
Angeles City Council, L.A. City Animal Services and The Bunny Bunch/LA
Rabbits knew once and for all that rabbits are strictly regulated AS
LIVESTOCK by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which FORBIDS the
cohabitation of HUMANS and RABBITS IN ANY QUANTITY because humans
develop untreatable staph infections that can be fatal when living
inside the same structure as rabbits. U.S.D.A. also forbids housing
rabbits inside human dwellings or within 65 feet of dwellings. There are
public documents which have the la county action taken against Evelyn
Walton for housing rabbits inside of a human dwelling. When Evelyn died
on 09 Dec 2013 @ 0200 Lawrence Harris contacted Michelle Kelly about the
$50,000.00 that Evelyn loaned to her and she stated that she would “get
back with you” and then moved away from Los Angeles and disappeared. She
stole $50,000.00 from Evelyn and thinks that the debt died with Evelyn.
Those are 6 years of my life that I am never getting back and it ruined
my health.