Who knew that America's largest bunny was here in Virginia Beach? The Bunny Hutch is an exotic animal rescue, but it's a little more like a mini zoo. Local animal rescues take in all animals, but they can't keep exotic animals. They contact The Bunny Hutch who takes them off of their hands. Everyone who works in this place is a volunteer. Let me say this again; there is no paid staff here, which is pretty amazing. They operate under AZA guidelines and give donation based tours.
Our tour started off in the reptile room. I won't give everything away so that there are some surprises if you go, but there were animals that people just shouldn't have as pets. I suppose that's why they ended up here. One man snuck a particularly exotic snake into the country in his pants. In his pant's yall! Who does this?! The boys were able to touch different animals, although R wasn't into some of them. We next went to check out the mammal room and then back to the food prep station and the bigger mammals.
Last we went upstairs to see Jr, the big rabbit. Jr weighs 25 pounds and was actually the runt of his family. His father weighed 52 pounds and holds the world record for biggest rabbit. Jr, whose full name is Lord Roland Watson Beldon Maxwell VIII,
is the official Easter Bunny of Hampton Roads.
Here is the coolest part... they do birthday parties! All kinds of parties! They can do ones where the child is surprised by an animal adoption, ones where kids do crafts on a snake shed, ones with a popcorn machine and snowcones... all kinds of things. The birthday parties are donation based too. They have a big room upstairs for the parties, but you actually get the entire facility for your party. Seems awesome.
So far, they have helped over 220 animals. Because they are all donation based and volunteer based, they rely a lot on others for what they need. They have an Amazon Smile account, which is an easy way for you to donate to them and it costs you nothing. They can take animal cages, food for their animals, cleaning supplies and anything off of their
amazon wish list. They accept volunteers ages 1-100. They also have Zookeeper for a Day program for ages 8-12 who want to learn about daily tasks for zookeepers. They even sell animal made artwork as a fundraiser in their lobby. Check them out on facebook, instagram, and on their
website. We had an awesome morning during our visit.
