Bunny Yoga Is Happening in Vancouver

Photo Credit: VRR/Facebook

No, you haven’t just had a gloriously vivid dream, Bunny Yoga is a thing and it’s happening as a fundraiser for the Vancouver Rabbit Rescue on February 7th at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre. We spoke with Nina Hobbis who’s helping co-ordinate this fun event to find out more.

How did Bunny Yoga come to be?

Alas, it’s not my creation, the Small Animal Rescue Society of B.C. held a Bunny Yoga fundraiser in October and I thought that was just the most brilliant idea in the world. The Vancouver Rabbit Rescue also held a Bunny Yoga session and I just thought, “I have to go to this!” Animal groups are always having to fundraise and this is such a wonderful way to do it and the shelter animals get to be there too. 

What’s it like doing yoga with rabbits?

There were 13 shelter rabbits in the room, now rabbits are really sociable, but they’re also territorial; they need to establish their spaces. There were ‘Rabbit Wranglers’ there to make sure there weren’t any bunny issues, as we didn’t want any of the rabbits not getting along. It was so much fun because the rabbits are running around while you’re in your poses– one went through my legs as I was in warrior pose.

Do you think the rabbits enjoyed it?

Oh yes! We don’t want to stress them out, we want to raise money for them. Some of the rabbits are shy, but most of them seemed to be having a a good time. They sit beside you and look like they’re enjoying it. One lady got quite startled in savasana pose when she was lying down, totally relaxed, a rabbit came and sniffed her hand and made her jump!

What can people expect from the next Bunny Yoga fundraiser?

There are so many animal poses: three great rabbit ones in fact, then there’s cat pose, and dog, pigeon and deer pose! We’ll be doing some of those, I’m sure. Our teacher is Gail Leslie from the Dancing Cat Studio, she’s donating her time and she’s great. It’s about having fun and raising money for the animals. We have a little Rabbit Rules intro at the start when you can pet the animals, and then we have the class and we’ll finish with tea and bunny biscuits.

And, if people are thinking of adopting a rabbit from the shelter, what should they know?

We don’t want to really push them as pets cos they’re not the easiest to cope with, they’re the third most popular small pet, but  they’re often bought back because they’re hard to cope with. Yes they are cute, but cute is not enough. Prospective owners should know that they chew, they poop–although they can be house-trained– they eat like crazy and they can be pretty difficult to look after unless you know what you’re doing.

The fundraiser is a great chance to find out more if you’re thinking of adopting a rabbit, and it’ll be so much fun too. When rabbits are happy they run and hop in the air, it’s called the ‘Bunny Binkies’ and it’s very cute when it happens, so we’ll hopefully have plenty of that.