I promise you - a clinic will put an animal down if the cost of de-ticking, flea treatments and grooming is too high on a stray dog or cat. A broken leg or open wound, considering all the diseases rabbits can carry when wild, is far beyond the risk any clinic is willing to take. I have had two separate clinics tell me with two different stray cats, over the phone, that just by my description they would put it down. They have next to no money as it is and people think they can just absorb the costs as if it is no big deal and it just doesn't work that way. It's a business at the end of the day - handing out free care to half-dead wild animals isn't exactly a profit making practice. I'm not saying this to be mean but it is true.

I'm not sure about where you're from, but I have friends who have brought wild birds, feral cats (which get neutered while they're treated), fox cubs, etc. to vets or animal sanctuaries to be treated and I've seen many news stories on local news channels about people bringing many species of wildlife to animal sanctuaries to be treated before releasing them back into the wild, they completely rely on donations from people, but they always say they never put an animal down unless absolutely necessary. Rabbits don't carry much disease (not many zoonotic diseases anyways, except salmonella, which you can get from ALL animals anyways, or unless you get a scratch from a dirty paw and you don't wash the wound), except for myxamatosis and RHD which are both usually rabbit-to-rabbit and the vaccination for these is quite cheap (my vet charges €10 annually for my bun). Ireland cares tremendously about it's wildlife, I'll give it that much.

It *was* killed humanely.

I have personally experienced the exact opposite. I live in the country surrounded by wildlife, a massive part of my life, and no sanctuary or clinic here will waste tax payers money, their own time or anyone else's by pretending that a single wild rabbit's existence matters. I hate to say it, as well, but there is a significant chance that all those friends were told the animals would be saved and simply weren't. It's easier to say "we'll save it, thank you" than explain to an animal lover that they can't justify the cost. I don't intend to come across brash or rude but it's true, at least in my experiences in Maine and Florida.

So I hunt for food. My family is poor - we grow vegetables and hunt for meat. I kill them with no remorse, go elbow deep cleaning them out, butcher and freeze them. Sometimes when I walk up to a felled deer it is still alive and I'll put it out of it's misery. I'm not trustworthy?

Amen. I have lived my life surrounded by nature and I absolutely love and respect every animal I come across but I am a realist and not some city-dwelling, brainless millennial. It's easier for a vet to say "We can save it" when they are just going to kill it than explain to a bleeding heart that it's not in their budget to save a single, wild rabbit. These people scare me, frankly. Are they that disconnected from reality? The guy is definitely a dick but only because of what he said and NOT what he did.