Meet Dubai’s rabbit rescue community: How residents foster and heal abandoned bunnies across the UAE

For a few seconds, there’s a silence as we’re all peering for a bunny under the bed.

Dubai-based Katayune Ehsani, a rabbit rescuer and fosterer since 2021, doesn’t give up, trying to fetch lop-eared Frankie from under the bed. Frankie is the trademark introvert: Too many people in the room. Under the bed is safe. No one there.

But eventually, Frankie nuzzles her way out, because treats are hard to resist. We get a few glimpses of a black fluff, before she dives right back in. A cheery Ehsani, who has set up a little home for the rabbit living in her room, shares the story of Frankie, her current foster. “She has come from Ras Al Khaimah. She was in a farm. We thought that she would need to be in a home environment. She is one of the many fosters that I have helped pick up,” she says. At that point Frankie jumps out, before running back in.

"She’s a bit shy. Sometimes she does a little dance,” says Ehsani with much affection. Soon, Frankie will be adopted by a loving family, as Ehsani explains.

Ehsani, who has been in the UAE for the past 19 years, says, “I was completely oblivious about rabbits at first. I was just rescuing cats. My first cat was in 2010. And you know, when you get one, you just get another.”

And if you thought that cats and rabbits can’t live in harmony: Well, Ehsani has some news for you. In another room, two cats lie sprawled on the bed, while the floor has two rabbit play areas. We greet one bunny, who doesn’t wish to be cuddled in front of us, and another white fluff, who was rescued from Barsha Park, after being abandoned.

Ehsani, like many other rescuers is passionate about the cause: She hosts regular meetings and provides presentations to guide people through rabbit fostering and how to ‘bunny-proof’ your home. 

On the other hand, for Emma Dobey, it all began in a garden in England.

‘Rabbits are the most abandoned pets’

A rabbit found in a garden. A lifelong love.

That's the story of Emma Dobee, who found a bunny in her garden in England. At the age of 11, she marched to the pet shop and bought everything that she could for the rabbit.

Cities changed and so did countries, but the love never wavered. In 2022, she moved to UAE and noticed that rabbits were easily forgotten pets. People would get them for a sense of cuteness gratification, and then abandon them. “There are so many misconceptions around rabbits, one of them being that they are low maintenance,” explains Dobee. Just the contrary: Rabbits require specialised care. “There is education needed before you get a rabbit.”

She recalls how she scrolled through post after post about abandoned, dumped rabbits. Sometimes, ten a day, would be found just in a park. “Worse, they cannot survive in this heat,” she says. 

In December 2023, she joined the Facebook Group for Helping Hands for Small Paws, and reached out to Claire Malcolm, who rescues and takes care of bunnies. “It was that time of the year when bunnies are just dumped. Since then. I’ve fostered over 15-20 of them, and they’ve gone to good homes,” she explains.

Scrolling into foster care

One abandoned rabbit can change a person's routine. A steady stream of social media posts can change it entirely. Mike Dawson, the CEO of an education software company Ustad Mobile, is also currently fostering three rabbits: Dora, Stuart Little and Amber.

Recalling his first foster, he says it was in 2022. “I just googled rabbit adoption as I was looking for an animal companion, and I came across Helping Hands,” he says, referring to the community that helps in taking care of abandoned rabbits, and finding homes for them. 

After seeing the Facebook page, he decided to foster a rabbit: His bathroom became a de facto bunny home, as he says. His third bunny, was also due to a Facebook post.

Apart from fostering and caring for them, Dawson also helps rescue rabbits and find them a home, or take them to the vet especially whenever he sees them being just left and abandoned in parks. 

Inside the foster network

Behind every rabbit, is a network of volunteers willing to open their homes, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for years.

Claire Malcolm, a volunteer administrator at Helping Hands for Small Paws, knows that reality better than most. She receives several requests a day about abandoned rabbits. In our previous conversations, she has often shared stories of finding rabbits dumped in parks and, in one case, even a basement car park.

Painful as it is to nurse injured rabbits back to health and earn the trust of abandoned animals, Malcolm continues to fight the good fight.

"Our small but loving community of fosters – many of whom end up welcoming bunnies into their home as permanent family members – are a lifeline," she says.

The commitment can look very different from one foster to another. Some people open their homes for a few weeks while a rescuer travels, while others take in a rabbit until it finds a forever family.

"How long is a piece of string?" Malcolm says, when asked how long fostering typically lasts.

Some rabbits are adopted within weeks. Others wait months. A few wait years. Helping Hands currently has rabbits that have been in foster care for more than two years, through no fault of their own.

Before any rabbit is placed in a home, potential fosters go through a screening process. "It all starts with a casual chat where we talk about their experience and expectations re rabbit care – and ours," Malcolm explains.

If that goes well, volunteers conduct a home visit, checking that the space is safe and rabbit-proofed while answering questions and meeting family members. Long-term fosters are also invited into the group's WhatsApp community, where experienced rescuers share advice, discuss rehoming opportunities and support one another through the emotional ups and downs of rescue work.

"Our fosters become part of an amazing family of beautiful, caring humans," Malcolm says.

The work, however, comes with responsibilities. Rabbits need daily care, proper nutrition, grooming and regular health monitoring. Where possible, Helping Hands provides basic starter equipment such as litter trays, bowls and hay, but fosters typically cover ongoing costs such as food.

"Rabbits are low-cost food-wise," Malcolm notes, adding that hay and greens are generally affordable.

Medical care can be more complicated. The group is entirely volunteer-run and self-funded, meaning there is no large rescue budget to draw from. For minor issues, some fosters choose to cover veterinary costs themselves, while volunteers occasionally pool resources to help with major emergencies. Transparency is especially important when placing rabbits with known medical conditions, Malcolm says.

Finding a forever home is also a shared effort. Fosters often help arrange adopter visits, conduct home checks and, eventually, hand over the rabbit to its new family.

It is a process that requires patience, commitment and, above all, room in one's home for an animal that may have nowhere else to go.

After all, behind every rabbit safely stretched out in a living room instead of abandoned in a park is someone who decided to make room for one more animal in need.