Introduction

Thank you for your interest in being an HRS educator. If you feel you meet the qualifications below, please fill out the application that follows.

EDUCATOR QUALIFICATIONS 

• You must be in agreement with the House Rabbit Society philosophy and policies. (See http://www.rabbit.org/hrs-info/philosophy.html).
•  You should have continuous, on-going, hands-on experience with a variety of individual rabbits. This may include fostering in your home, volunteering/working at your local animal shelter, a veterinary clinic, etc.
• It is expected that you will have at least 1 year of volunteer experience before applying to be an educator.
•  You should have good rapport with at least one rabbit veterinarian.
• Be a member of the House Rabbit Society (send $18 to House Rabbit Society, 148 Broadway, Richmond, CA 94804)
•  You should have as many back issues to the House Rabbit Journal as are available (you can download them from our website at www.rabbit.org).
•  You should have access to the Fourth Edition of the House Rabbit Handbook. 
• You should have managerial skills for coordinating activities and volunteers. 
• You should be an articulate and tactful self-starter.
•   You must (except in the case of medical reasons) not maintain any unneutered or unspayed rabbits.
•  You must house your rabbits indoors. If you have a fostering program, you must house your foster rabbits indoors.

 EDUCATOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• House Rabbit Society educators are responsible for:  Working with local shelters to help them with their rescue and adoption programs.  Educating the public through distributing educational handouts, holding educational seminars, and working with shelters and veterinarians. 
• Operating a phone help line to help local people with health and behavior questions
•  Cultivating a referral list of veterinarians who safely work with rabbits in your area. 
• Providing assistance with helping people to find homes for their unwanted rabbits, and with helping others to adopt needy rabbits.
•  Spreading the HRS message of spay/neuter, indoor living, and other basic tenets.
•  Fill out a year-end report detailing your activities.
• Sign a yearly code-of-conduct (View it here)
• Volunteer on projects that help the House Rabbit Society directly (in addition to time spent working on local or regional volunteer activities.) 

EDUCATOR BENEFITS

• Access to a knowledgeable and welcoming online community. House Rabbit Society maintains several online discussion forums available only to licensed educators. These forums are a wonderful place to share and exchange knowledge with over 100 other licensed educators who all have a shared philosophy and purpose.
• House Rabbit Society’s reputation. As a licensed educator, you are empowered to speak on behalf of our organization. Our name is well known and respected in the animal rescue world and across the Internet.
• Access to our wide variety of education materials. 

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Once started, this application must be fully completed in one session. Although there is not a time limit for completing the application, the application is very long and has numerous essay-type questions that require careful thought.

For a complete list of all the questions visit here to download them as an RTF file. We recommend you use this document to compose and spell check your application. Once you are satisfied with your answers, please revisit this site and cut and paste your answers into the application.

Please take your time to read and thoroughly answer the questions on the following pages. This application was designed to get to know you and your approaches to public education, as well as demonstrate your knowledge of domestic rabbit behavior and care.