Bunny Museum in Altadena Destroyed by Los Angeles Wildfires, 46,000 Rabbit-Themed Items Lost

The Bunny Museum in Altadena, established in 1998 by Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski, was destroyed in wildfires that began on 7 January, spreading across Los Angeles. The museum housed 46,000 rabbit-themed memorabilia items, valued at $1.9 million, with the oldest dating to 300 BC. Its collection spanned consumer culture over the past half-century, including stuffed toys, artworks, Christmas decorations, Easter eggs, snow globes, and advertisements. A 'Chamber of Hop Horrors' section highlighted historical abuses of rabbits, from laboratory experiments to Playboy imagery. Despite efforts to protect the building by hosing it down overnight, it caught fire on 9 January after a neighboring structure burned. Frazee and Lubanski saved some key items: the first two bunnies of the collection, antiquity pieces, three Guinness World Record certificates, and an Elvis 'Parsley' Presley water pitcher. However, they lost wedding albums, Frazee's wedding dress, and the vast majority of the bunny objects. The fires have led to over 5,000 structures burning down and 100,000 residents evacuated in the neighborhood. Frazee described the day as 'not a hoppy day' in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, reflecting the personal and cultural loss. The museum had been described in 2021 as the 'weirdest, wildest place you can visit in Los Angeles' in an interview with the Guardian.