Don’t Let The Easter Bunny Loose!

With Easter just around the corner, many families are gearing up for the festivities, and it's not uncommon for cute bunnies to make an appearance as gifts. While the gesture may seem endearing, there is a dark side to giving real bunnies as presents.

Learn more about how their presence in the wild can lead to overpopulation, habitat destruction, and the transmission of diseases: Don’t Let the Easter Bunny Loose blog post

Don’t Let It Loose is aimed at reducing intentional and unintentional introductions of non-native species into the wild.

Be it pets, sportfish and bait, or escaped animals from farms or ponds, these non-native species can become invasive and negatively impact our native species and their habitats by increasing competition for resources, preying on native species, and introducing diseases.

Steps

1

Never release aquarium pets, water garden plants, live food (example: fish, crabs, mollusks) or live bait into rivers, streams, lakes, ponds or storm sewers.

2

Sport fish may only be released back into the waters from which they were caught (example: catch-and-release) – never move a sport fish from one body of water to another.

3

Know what pets and plants are legal to own. Only buy them from reputable retailers whose species are properly labelled, especially when buying online.

4

Be a responsible pet and plant owner and care. Ask a friend or someone else if they can adopt your pet or plant. Using social media, community lists or online classified ads may be helpful. Contact the pet store or place where you purchased your pet to see if they can take it back

How Does This Help

Don’t Let it Loose aims to target pet owners and fisherman to not release invasive fish, plants, and wildlife into our environment. These invasions typically occur through:

Releasing unwanted fish & pets
Dumping aquarium contents
Dumping live bait
Moving or introducing new game species
Accidental pet, pond, and farm animal escapes

By targeting these pathways of invasion, we can reduce invasive species introductions in New Brunswick.

Program Activities

Through the DON’T LET IT LOOSE program, we work with a variety of stakeholders including government, industry, municipalities, and user-groups like aquarium hobbyists, pet owners, anglers, and hunters to raise awareness about the negative impacts non-native species can have when released into the wild. Check out our DLIL activities below and contact us if you would like to get involved!