VERHALEN

12 guinea pigs have joined our sanctuary. They will be spayed/neutered and we're planning to hire people to build them a brand new 7-meter long barn. If you want to support the building of this guinea pig micro sanctuary, please support our crowdfunding by clicking HERE.

13 Flemish giants have been brought to our sanctuary by a lady who said she didn't have space for them. They're all still babies, some a little older than others, and they're very sweet and gentle. 

Vos, brought here by a kind lady who found her in the trash. She is very friendly an innocent rabbit. She loves the barrel I gave her, and sleeps in it.

Moby is 1/2 jack russel and 1/2 pug. His previous owner dumped him with the usual -  Got it for my kid, but it didn't work out because he's too bounchy - excuse. Moby has just reached puberty, so of course he's going to be bouncy! He's super sweet though, but does need a lot of exercise. Thankfully we have plenty of forests and beaches where he can walk off-leash.

Kiki is not a rescue. I bought her from a breeder back when I was still ignorant about how harmful breeding animals is. She, Geno and Molly are the only dogs allowed inside the rabbit garden. 

This black and white one is called a "Lotharinger" in Holland. I found her in a trash can. Yes, someone had thrown away a nest of baby bunnies in mid winter. The trash can was open and the garbage was about to be collected within a few hours. I didn't know who threw them away: all trash of the whole street is piled up together here. I examined all rabbits carefully, only to discover that they were all dead, except for one. I took her home, warmed her up and she made it. After she recovered, I introduced her to the group. We called her Lottie. It's been a few years ever since, and she's grown so much. She and the rabbits saved from the meat industry are the 3 biggest of them all. 

EDIT: Lottie has recently passed away due to illness in June 2018. Sadly the vet couldn't do anything for her anymore. R.I.P.

Elephant Pupa is a pretty dominant lady. She was about to be processed into petfood because nobody wanted her, but I took her and her sister Baby Pupa away from that awful place. While her little sister recently passed away, Elephant Pupa still lives on.

Mjrn is another rescue that was about to be disposed of by a bunch of money-hungry sellers because no one bought her. I saved her from the trash truck (without them noticing) and she's been living at Pupa's ever since. I sadly was too late to save her sister, because the trash car had already picked her up before I heard about it. Mjrn is one of the most gentle rabbits in the sanctuary.

Frettelina came from a lady who was chronically ill and therefore forced to give all of her animals away. We were very lucky that she got along well with Fred, because usually ferrets are solitary animals. Frettelina loves digging, and often tries to convince the dogs to play with her (but none want to). She and Fred sleep together. Frettelina has dental cancer, which has recently been treated. You can support her treatment by supporting the crowdfunding campaign for it by clicking HERE.

She may look small now, but this breed of rabbits is called Flemish Giant. They become very large. I've temporarily separated her and her siblings until the group we currently have are used to their smell.

Her name is Rex. I don't know how old she is exactly, but apparently she had a hard time getting pregnant, so a breeder wanted to do away with her. She seems to be traumatized, because she is very scared of humans, and isn't social with other rabbits either. She will attack anyone or anything approaching her, so I build her a seperate run, and hope to gain her trust over time with baby steps. 

This is Fran. She was used by a breeder for breeding. This breeder was a complete and utter psychopath who beat her animals and even punched her parkeets against the wall. Fran had an abscess in her cheek, which we treated by the vet. She is doing great now and loves laying around in the sun. She is best friends with Mjrn.

Fred was dumped by a lady with the usual "I bought it for my kid, but it bit my kid, so please take it." 
Fred likes climbing and does it all the time. Therefore I never allow him to walk through the whole house without supervision (seriously, he will kill himself by climbing the highest craziest spaces). We plan on moving soon, and when we do, I will give him and his girlfriend Frettelina their own ferret garden.

This was our first attempt to build a fence. It looked horrible! Haha. Now we have re-made it from wood and attached a barn because the cages you see in the background in this photo were weak and old and broke when we tried to move them. I hope I somehow will have the funds to expand the sanctuary and buy an actual field for them.

Vlokkie was another abandoned rabbit. A very gentle and pure soul, kind to all rabbits and she became best friends with Popcorn. After 5 peaceful years, both her and Popcorn have passed away. I don't know their exact ages, but I hope they rest in peace after living out their lives in peace at Pupa's.

I found this rabbit on the road. She wasn't a wild rabbit: I could clearly tell by the way she moved. Someone had abandoned her near the park, which often happen during the holidays. Her head had lost a part of its fur: she was clearly ill. She had scabies, I could see it in a blink of an eye. It was still early in the morning when I started running after the white, fluffy being to catch her on my high heels like a freak. People who passed by thought I was insane, but I didn't care. A little boy and his father stopped to ask me what I was doing. "Um, well... my rabbit ran away," I lied. The father and son both stepped off their bike and before I knew, they were chasing the rabbit, too. It probably looked funny: an adult businessman, a little boy and a lady on high heels chasing after a bunny. With their help I eventually caught the rabbit and took her home. I isolated her for some time, like I always do with new rabbits, for a health checkup and treatment of her diseases. After she recovered, I introduced her to the group. I called her Popcorn. She recently passed away in 2018 (see Vlokkie's story for more details).

This is Geno, a longhair chihuahua, who came from a horrible place. His previous owner beat him and never let him go outside: he lived in a cage inside the house 24/7 and pooped and peed on the ground. He was used for the sole purpose to breed to make the owner money by selling his puppies. When I came to get him out of there, I stepped into one big messy house full of dirty dinner plates, empty cans of beer and a disgusting smell. And there he was: a 3 year old dog. He was dirty, smelled awful and had a lot of tangles in his fur. And the owner put the dog into a plastic bag before handing him over to me, like an object. I left in disgust. The dog was completely traumatized. He was extremely scared of everything, especially men, and bit my brother's and a guy I used to date their faces open when they wanted to pet him. He couldn't walk on a leash, every sound frightened him and whenever a female dog passed by, he screamed like he was being tortured when he wasn't allowed to go to her. Apparently that was the only way to kill time back in his old home. I had to neuter him for this behaviour to stop.
Today, after years of kindness and patience, he is now a playful, happy dog who loves to run on the beach and in the park. He no longer bites anyone and is a friend of both adults and children now. I called the animal protection on the previous owner, but they were too lazy to do something about it and didn't even bother to go over there (shame on them!) so sadly, I couldn't save the other dogs trapped in that hell.

Molly's previous owner couldn't care for her anymore. His entire family, except him, passed away and the guy had too many animals to take care of. So he gave up Molly to me. She's been living here for a few years now and is 12 years old now. Time flies! She, Kiki and Geno are the only 3 dogs allowed to get into the rabbit field with me. She is very kind, quiet and gentle. She has plenty of baskets and poufs, but she still prefers my bed to sleep in. Haha. She is obsessed with nylon dog toys.

Goldie is a dog from Romania, 12 years old they said. She was going to be put down because she suffered from heart worm. We successfully got it treated at the vet (thanks to your donations) and now she is living a peaceful and happy life.

This sweet, gentle rabbit and another one like her were rescued by an unknown activist from the meat industry. Just in time, because the day after they were about to be artificially inseminated (raped) by some perverted money-hungry farmer. A rescuer has sent me the photos of the rabbits their living conditions back there: it was awful, like a horror movie. 

Rabbits are affectionate, social animals that enjoy the company of other rabbits. They express joy through 'binkys' where they run, jump into the air, twist their body and flick their feet. Rabbits also have strong hind limbs which allow them to leap great distances. They can jump up to one metre high and three metres long.
Within the battery cage though, these natural behaviours are denied. Like battery caged chickens, meat rabbits are kept in small cages suspended above the floor where faecal matter builds up below them. A 100 doe farm creates roughly 153kgs of faeces plus urine each day.This causes high ammonia levels which burn the fragile hocks of the rabbit's feet and irritate their eyes. Imagine the smell and the ammonia build up these animals are exposed to. Cages are often constructed with wire mesh flooring which restricts thermoregulation and causes foot and hock injuries as well as pododermatitis to rabbit feet. The space they are provided is roughly 0.07m2 per rabbit inside the cage. This is only slightly bigger than an A4 piece of paper. There is no stimulation inside the cages and no outside access. The cages are also of insufficient height. Rabbits require 70cm per hop. Jumping is nearly impossible within the barren cages provided. They struggle to stand with ears erect and are deprived of expressing natural behaviours such as digging and hiding.

Meat rabbits are killed at roughly 12 weeks of age. Females kept for breeding can be forced to live in these conditions for 56 weeks while they produce 7 litters. Despite their need to socialise, bucks (male breeder rabbits) are kept in total isolation. Rabbits are susceptible to parasitic diseases as well as bacterial and viral infections. Husbandry practices at battery caged facilities create inviting atmospheres for these health problems. Head tilt (wry neck), where the head tilts to one side, is a common problem with a variety of causes including middle ear infections, parasitic infections, brain tumours or head trauma. Head tilts can frequently be so sever their eye is scraped along the ground and the rabbit has problems moving and feeding. Cervical dislocation is the most common method to kill rabbits on the farm that are sick or injured.

But thankfully that hell is over now for these two (and a few others which they brought to other sanctuaries). Now they can run, jump, dig and play instead of getting their throats slit. Despite them looking almost exactly the same, they both have very different personalities. One is pretty shy and spends a lot of time inside the barn, while the other one is very curious little fella who loves to explore and stick around you. We named them Basch & Noah.