Want to wake up Easter morning to a basket filled with goodies? Here are five ways to be sweet to rabbits this spring—and make sure the Easter Bunny's trail runs right up to your house.

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• Stuff children's baskets with a fluffy plush bunny. The stuffed variety won't chew through the basket as a real rabbit likely would. Rabbits are complex animals who require specialized care. They get nervous when they're lifted off the ground, and because of their delicate spines, they can break their backs if they struggle or are dropped. But stuffed bunnies can withstand all the holding, squeezing, and playing that kids can dish out.

• Be a bunny's buddy. If your family is ready to invest the eight to 12 years and average of $7,600 that rabbits require over the course of a lifetime, adopt a bunny from an animal shelter—you can often find spayed or neutered and even housetrained rabbits waiting for a family. Rabbits need care from veterinarians who are familiar with the species as well as plenty of fresh grass, timothy or oat hay, vegetables, and some fruits. They also need toys of different textures to chew on, regular grooming, and lots of attention from their guardians.

• Take care with wild hares. If the rabbits in your yard are beautiful to look at but making your spring flower garden less so, deter the nibbling with a couple of easy tricks. Erecting a short, inexpensive wire fence or planting lavender, catnip, or marigolds around the perimeter of the garden or flowerbed will keep hungry rabbits at bay.

• Make your spring makeover bunny-friendly. When you're choosing your new makeup or fragrance, go for ones that weren't dripped into rabbits' eyes. See PETA's online guide for a complete list of cruelty-free cosmetics companies. 

• Show your anti-fur pride to save a bunny's hide. Sure, you might don a bunny suit for Easter festivities, but never don a coat made of real rabbits. Sign PETA's Pledge to Be Fur-Free, and show Peter Cottontail that your house is a safe place by sporting an anti-fur tee.

Hoppy Easter!

It isn't quite Easter yet, but one Los Angeles woman still got a surprise from a bunny. Taken aback to see a big, fluffy black-and-white rabbit calmly nibbling grass near her home, she called PETA and asked how she could tell if the animal were a wild rabbit or a domesticated bunny someone had simply turned loose outdoors after growing tired of caring for the animal. 

This lucky (and adorable!) bunny got a second chance at finding a good home

Based on the rabbit's physical description and friendly demeanor, it was clear that the little one had been someone's companion. And as the PETA employee explained, domesticated rabbits lack the survival skills and training of their wild counterparts and will fall victim to predators, cruel people, or foreign parasites and diseases against which they lack a natural immunity.

The caller did everything right: She safely secured the bunny in a large box, carried the animal into her home, and called someone at the local animal shelter, who drove out and picked the bunny up. The friendly rabbit likely hadn't been outside for long since the animal was still very healthy, and the fluffy one now has a second chance at finding a forever home.

If you are considering adopting a rabbit, don't buy; go to a shelter or a rescue group.  

Like a warm-weather Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny delivers baskets full of treats to children every year. But photographers who use real rabbits as props in Easter photos shouldn't expect anything in their baskets but plastic grass.
  

Unlike real rabbits, this Easter bunny doesn’t mind being taken out of the wild for photo shoots.                                            zappowbang/cc by 2.0

 
Rabbits are easily stressed by unfamiliar surroundings and terrified by loud noises and sudden movements. They often panic when handled, and a frightened rabbit can bite or scratch children. They are also delicate animals whose spines can snap if they kick or if they're dropped or even held improperly. And when Easter is over, these animals are often abandoned at shelters or dumped outside, where they are killed by predators.

Please don't support businesses that use live animals as props. Many national portrait studios have policies against using live animals, such as Sears Portrait Studio and LifeTouch Inc. studios in Target and JCPenney stores. Stuffed animals are a simple, humane alternative, as are Easter bunnies of the costumed variety.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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Last Thursday, four rabbits in a Warwick Mall photo studio reportedly drowned in the floods that have been ravaging Rhode Island. Although the mall had been evacuated two days earlier, the bunnies—whom Portrait Simple studios was using as props for in-store Easter photos—were left behind in their cage on a "high shelf" in the studio. When employees returned to the studio two days later, they discovered that the cage had apparently fallen from its perch and that all the rabbits had drowned.

When PETA first heard about Portrait Simple's use of live rabbits for photos a few weeks ago, we contacted the studio and the store's director of operations told us that the rabbits were "well cared for, played with, coddled, and loved by our team members." Now, in the aftermath of these preventable deaths, we're asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate and if appropriate revoke Portrait Simple's exhibitor license in order to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens at the studio again. You can help by contacting Portrait Simple and asking it to implement a "no animals" policy at its stores.