Wearing an helmet and using the tools of the trade to do your job, when you suddenly discover baby rabbits. This is exactly what happened to a builder on the building site of the Sanders Building at Woudestein. While operating an excavator, he unexpectedly unearthed five young rabbits. They may have been dumped on the site without their mother. Only one of the quintet was ultimately caught and placed in a small box for safety with the help of Sharon Dzwairo, a lecturer in law at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.

“I offered to take the young rabbit,” she explained. Once back inside the building, she tried to make the animal feel at ease, but doing so proved to be quite challenging. “I tried to feed it lettuce, but it didn’t feel like eating. Not at all surprising given the traumatic experience that it had just been through.”

To the children’s farm

baby konijntje

Of course it was not possible for the young animal, which was estimated to be around three to six weeks old, to remain at the university. The rescuers decided that it should be brought to a children’s farm. According to Dzwairo, “A SPAR employee offered to take the rabbit to De Melkweg children’s farm in Barendrecht. A rabbit there had just become a mother would perhaps adopt the young rabbit we found.”

It remains to be seen whether the mother rabbit will adopt the new arrival, but those who run the children’s farm are happy to have him there. He has even been given the name Tabbit. The fate of Tabbit’s four brothers and sisters is unknown.