Is it legal to raise leverets?

[ruralchild]

They do in England. They rescue abandoned leverets, raise them, then turn them loose in the wild as part of a conservation program.

Is it legal for anyone here in the states to raise leverets? They have very special needs, including a HUGE space to move around in. Anyone experienced at rehabilitating them?

They're really cute, but don't make good pets. It would be just for wildlife conservation purposes.

 

[1muttsfan]

I don't believe you need a license for baby rabbits, but you should check before you try. I have a friend who has been a licensed rehabber for many years and she says wild rabbits are very difficult to raise in captivity, they often seem to be doing well and then just die.

 

[ruralchild]

I've heard of that happening a lot with pet rabbits. They'll seem perfectly healthy, then just up and die suddenly.

Actually, a leveret is a baby hare. And while we're told that rabbits and hares are entirely different animals, I'm inclined to believe that a hare is just another kind of rabbit.

One of the differences is that hares give birth to precocial babies, whereas rabbit babies are altricial. But, the same can be said for certain species of birds -- yet they're all still considered to be birds.

To confuse matters more, the Belgian Hare is actually a rabbit.

And a jackrabbit is said to be a hare.

Scientists dispute this, but I think it's just a matter of semantics. Like the so-called difference between frogs and toads, turtles, terrapins and tortoises, alligators, crocodiles and caymans. Just different kinds of basically the same animals.

By the way, a baby rabbit is normally called a bunny or a kitten (never could understand the latter, as kittens are baby cats).

Scientists also claim that hares have never been domesticated and therefore can't be kept as pets.

What do you folks think? Is it just a matter of different kinds of the same animal, or are hares and rabbits truly different animals, entirely? Ought to make for an interesting discussion ...