What started off as a family project to rescue rabbits led a Creswell mother and daughter on a crusade to ban an event they regarded as animal abuse at the Cottage Grove Rodeo.
And they got their wish -- sort of.
Heather Crippen and her 18-year-old daughter, Alex Crippen, heard about the "animal scramble" at the Cottage Grove Rodeo last year and decided to go see it firsthand. The two operate Red Barn Rabbit Rescue in Creswell, a nonprofit group that cares for about 60 rabbits that have been abused or abandoned.
"We don't cry easily," Heather Crippen said, "but we were having a hard time watching."
Dozens of rabbits were hauled into a horse trailer, she said, and released into the rodeo ring at the event that's organized each year by the Cottage Grove Riding Club. At the count of three, scores of children charged, each trying to snag a rabbit to keep. Some children grabbed the animals by their fur, and a few stepped on them, she said.
"People are whooping and hollering and yelling for the kids to grab (the rabbits)," Heather Crippen said.
"The stress that the rabbits go through is ridiculous," Alex Crippen said.
The two drafted a Lane County ordinance that would ban such events. And they sent several letters and emails to the Cottage Grove Riding Club, asking the organization to end the animal scramble at the rodeo, which this year will take place next Friday and Saturday, July 12-13.
There will be no bunnies at this year's scramble, Riding Club President Kelli Fisher said.
Instead, there will be chickens.
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