Peacebunny Island
Peace Bunny Island
Caleb Smith, a bunny aficionado and entrepreneur, made his debut at the Minnesota State Fair in the third grade.
After proposing a business venture to his parents at only 9 years old, Smith saved four rabbits off of Craigslist, and started educating people about bunnies enlivened by his passion for the animals. Since then, he’s built his bunny enterprises to include a houseboat, Peacebunny Island (a retreat where bunnies can be bunnies, while, of course, also being chaperoned), a non-profit called STEMbunnies, and Peacebunny Cottage where the rabbits stay when they’re not hard at work educating, comforting, being fostered, and bringing joy to kids and adults alike.
Now at 15 and entering high school, Smith has returned to the State Fair for the fifth time with oodles of bunnies and a bounce in his step. Smith started this last weekend with the 4H competition, and will be doing the Open Competition this coming weekend where he is able to bring as many as 50 rabbits. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll bring that many.
“When we go to the different events, we make sure that the rabbit wants to go,” Smith says. “So, we don’t ahead of time pick out this rabbit is going, and this rabbit is going.”
He calls it inviting the bunny.
“If they don’t want to go, then they’ll kind of stand further back from us,” he says. “When they want to go, they’ll kind of put their paws in the cage and act like they want to go and interact with people.”
This gives the rabbits some control, which is one of the “Four C’s” Smith teaches at Bunny Boot Camp: calm, consistent, caring, and control.
“So, you want to be calm with the rabbits so that they learn that humans are really nice,” he explains.
Part of Smith's drive toward his nonprofit and bunny work is breeding endangered rabbit species–many of which happen to be larger-than-average–to encourage demand.
“Most people don’t focus on the bigger rabbits anymore, they want the smaller rabbits as a kind of pet rabbits,” he says.
While they are endangered, and there’s lots of germs at the State Fair, Smith brings the bunnies to encourage education, and awareness of their status. And, his mom Stephanie Smith, says it’s working. People see the endangered rabbits and simply fall in love.
His special breeds include American Chinchilla, Silver Fox, Crème D’Argent, Harlequin, Beveren, Hotot, and Flemish Giant (the biggest rabbit breed). If she agrees to come, Smith will be bringing Feisty, a Flemish Giant defending her best of breed title.
“She’s close to 20 pounds,” he says. The State Fair is the only event Feisty does, because, well, “she’s feisty.”
Beyond exposing people to unique breeds of rabbits, Smith makes little tags informing people of bunny fun facts. “Like a boy rabbit is a buck, and a girl rabbit is a doe,” he says. “Just some facts that people can learn.”
It seems like people tend to spend more time in the building now, Stephanie says. Plus, Smith and the STEMbunny volunteers stand around the rabbit cages and talk bunny. “I bring my team – my crew,” he says. “We just teach people about the different breeds and about rabbits in general … I want them to learn something as they go through the barn.”
It all goes back to saving bunnies by spreading knowledge and experience.
“People then can learn about the endangered ones, hopefully. Because if they don’t know about it, then they’ll never learn about them,” Smith says.
Last year, Smith brought just over 30 rabbits and went home with 32 blue ribbons and 10 best of breeds. But even after all of his successful bunny-related endeavors, Smith remains humble and ready to learn.
“I am just a kid. There’s all these other adults that have all this experience that are also bringing their rabbits,” Smith says, explaining the respect he has for the other competitors in the bunny community.
This year, Smith will be taking name suggestions for some of his newest bunnies, plus on Sunday he’ll be doing a presentation about Angora rabbits (the super fluffy ones) at the University of Minnesota Extension booth.
“It’s a really good community you can learn from,” Smith says. “Everyone’s different in their own way, and everyone’s good in their own way.”
To find Smith, his bunnies, and learn some fun bunny trivia, stop by the Sheep and Poultry Barn and visit the Peacebunny Island website for more information.
“We just eat stuff on a stick and we spend time together,” he says. “Let’s just interact with each other and have a lot of fun.”
