“I love animals myself,” Gonzalez told the station. “I didn’t want the rabbit to go through the fire…At first, he was afraid of me because I was yelling, but then it went in my arms.”
Gonzalez said he then put the bunny down on the other side of the highway, away from the flames, and drove away.
But here’s where things start to get a little fishy in this rabbit tale: Gonzalez said there were actually TWO bunnies and he was able to save the white one. But when he spoke to the Daily Mail on Friday, he recounted seeing THREE bunnies.
“I thought to myself it was the rabbit’s family,” he told the outlet. Gonzalez also didn’t clearly state whether he rescued a white rabbit or a black one with white spots 🤔
Also, as the Huffington Post points out, wild rabbits in that part of Southern California are typically brown or gray. Domesticated rabbits, which are less likely to be randomly running on the side of the highway, are white and black.
Of course, it was a slightly hectic situation, so perhaps the details got a little fuzzy.
But THEN an animal hospital in the area told the Huffington Post that they believed they were caring for a rescued wild rabbit.
Montanna Harrington, an employee at Conejo Valley Veterinary Hospital, said that a man in a red hoodie and basketball shorts dropped off an injured wild rabbit after scooping it up off the side of Highway 101, where the Thomas Fire had consumed thousands of acres in a matter of hours.
This location, though close, is different than where Gonzalez said he found the rabbit. Plus, he said he put the creature back into the wild.
The Conejo Valley Veterinary Hospital, the California Wildlife Center, and now NBC are backing Wadman, who showed the station pictures of the little critter and who had been wearing the exact same outfit as the man in the video.
After interviewing Gonzalez, NBC said in an editor’s note that “an enhanced image from the original video makes it clear Caleb Wadman is the person seen in the video.”
However, NBC4 said Gonzalez and his girlfriend still insist he is the one who saved the bunny.
