My name is Eric, and I run I Love Every Dog, and today I'm asking you to stand up for animals who seldom get a petition of their own: rabbits.
On August 14, 2026, county employees at McIntosh Preserve in Plant City, Florida, found 22 domestic rabbits dumped in the wild, far from anyone who could help them. These weren't wild cottontails. They were pet rabbits, someone's former companions, and they had no way to survive on their own. When they were found, they were dehydrated, underweight, and emaciated, with yellow staining on their paws from being forced to sit in their own urine for who knows how long. Two of them died within hours of being rescued. More than 20 are still fighting for their lives at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
Whoever did this drove out to a nature preserve, opened a crate or a cage, and left a group of defenseless, domesticated animals to starve, dehydrate, or be killed by predators. Hillsborough County Animal Control is investigating, but as of today, no one has been charged. Florida law allows a third-degree felony charge if it can be proven that abandoned animals were seriously injured or killed, and two rabbits already have died.
I'm asking State Attorney Suzy Lopez, who leads the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit covering Hillsborough County, to make finding and charging whoever abandoned these rabbits a real priority, and to pursue felony animal cruelty and abandonment charges once a suspect is identified. Rabbits are among the most neglected companion animals in this country, and cases like this rarely get the attention or consequences they deserve.
Please sign this petition and help me tell State Attorney Lopez that Hillsborough County will not let this cruelty go unanswered.
