Petition: 22 Pet Rabbits Were Dumped in a Florida Preserve. Two Died the First Night.

County park workers found them on the morning of 12 August 2026, scattered across McIntosh Preserve off Knights Griffin Road in Plant City, Florida. Twenty-two domestic rabbits, dehydrated, underweight, missing fur and covered in their own urine. Hillsborough County Animal Control took them to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Two died overnight. Please sign the petition asking authorities to identify and charge whoever left them there.

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Releasing a domestic rabbit into a nature preserve is not setting it free, and the Humane Society of Tampa Bay put the reason plainly: these are not wild animals, they are pets left to fend for themselves somewhere they had little chance of survival. Domestic rabbits have been bred for centuries into colours that stand out against grass and scrub, which makes them conspicuous to every hawk and coyote in the area. They have no learned instinct to dig a warren, evade a predator or find food. A rabbit dumped in a park is not free. It is exposed, and the outcome is usually decided within days.

The condition they arrived in points somewhere specific. Shelter staff said the animals had stained paws and were caked in urine, and they suspect the rabbits came from a breeding or hoarding situation rather than from someone releasing a single unwanted pet. That is the difference between a bad decision and a supply problem, and it is the reason the petition asks for an investigation rather than an awareness campaign. There is also a pressure worth naming: the Humane Society has since said it is overwhelmed, with 23 rabbits posted and needing placement between these survivors and the ones already in its care. Rabbits are the third most commonly surrendered pet in the US and rescues brace for a spike every year after Easter, which is a demand problem nobody solves by dumping animals in a preserve. The survivors are being spayed, neutered and offered for foster-to-adopt at the Tampa campus. One Green Planet has covered how to report suspected animal cruelty, and the rescue is reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay.

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