RENO -- Trainers will be in Reno this weekend to help teach people how to train rabbits if they want to adopt one.

And lots of rabbits are available.

This spring, members of the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society moved more than 1,200 domestic rabbits from a back yard in Reno to a ranch outside of town. The society is trying to get the rabbits adopted, either by individuals or other rescue groups.

But efforts have been hindered because potential bunny owners aren't sure the rabbits can be trained.

"They are domestic bunnies that have not been socialized," said Debby Widolf, rabbit manager for the society.

"They haven't been around many people. They aren't used to being petted and picked up. I think some of them would be happy to be house pets."

So the society has brought in specialists from California, who will conduct "clicker" training classes for people interested in adoption.

"Evidently, they have had huge success," said Richard Crook, who is in charge of the society's operation at the ranch. "You can actually train them to eat and drink."

"I think this is another tool that people can use," Widolf said. "I think the majority of these bunnies, given enough time and attention, can become social with a family."

The rabbits were taken by the truckload in March from a one-acre property near Reno-Tahoe International Airport to the 65-acre ranch leased by the society, which operates an animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. The rabbits, kept in cages, are being spayed and neutered at the ranch to get the population under control.

Officials of the society, which has about 300,000 members worldwide, calls the rabbit project its second-biggest rescue effort, after Hurricane Katrina, when the group saved about 7,000 animals along the Gulf Coast.