Bunny ban

Coquitlam can keep selling rabbits, but must be spayed or neutered first.

Coun. Mae Reid ended up voting against her own motion after amendments were tacked on by her council colleagues that would allow for the sale or rabbits, providing the animals are fixed.

“I want the total prohibition or nothing,” Reid said during Monday’s meeting.

An increasing number of rabbits are found in local parks, she said, often left behind by people who have grown tired of taking care of the animals. It is cruel that bunnies are being released to end for themselves, she said, often making them food for larger animals such as coyotes.

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Grey area

Activists intervening in University of Victoria rabbit cull.

. . . activists have been videotaping the trappers as they collect the live rabbits. On Monday, they started freeing animals that had been trapped.

“I care because these animals fall into a grey area,” said Carson. “They aren’t pets. They aren’t wildlife. And I’m tired of people writing them off as wildlife.”

The group is also worried about poison boxes that have been set up to control mice and rats. They say young rabbits are attracted to the bait and are small enough to get into the boxes.

“They’re obviously investigating and ingesting and dying all over the campus,” said Carson. “I saw three last night. Dead babies.”

94 down

University of Victoria in the middle of a quiet cull.

Tom Smith said 94 rabbits have been humanely captured from the area around the athletic fields and euthanized off site since May 8.

The new “pilot project” was a response to the failed attempt in January to trap, spay and relocate 150 rabbits. Since then, the population has surpassed the 2000 mark and Smith said the university had to move ahead with a cull, despite public controversy.

“Right now a cull is what will get us to that point of having a manageable rabbit population,” Smith said.

Bunny bylaw

District of North Vancouver bans intact bunnies.

Kim Marosevich, manager of the district’s animal shelter, told council that she receives regular requests for help from families who purchased a pet rabbit that was not the gender advertised or, in some cases, already pregnant.

“Some of these rabbits find their way to the shelter or to community-based rescue associations,” she wrote in her report. “Some are abandoned at the shelter or in a park. Our facility is at capacity as they are challenging animals to find homes for.”

Attempted atonement

Portrait of a hoarder.

As a teen, Alex threw rocks at birds.

“I had an arm,” he said, adding New York Yankees legend Roger Maris had nothing on him.

But I got carried away, Alex said Wednesday, at his home near 96 St. and 110 Ave.

Now, the 65-year-old says he is making up for his past.

In his front room, 40 pigeons and eight or nine doves have free roam.

“You’ve probably got a boardroom. I have a bird room,” the warm-eyed, bearded man said.

Ban pets

Stakeholders in rabbit debate agree on need for ban on selling unsterilized animals.

The University of Victoria, which is struggling to control a feral rabbit population that has ballooned to up to 2,000 animals, would like to see a legislated ban — as would the B.C. SPCA, other animal-protection groups and some municipalities.

Other communities have already taken that step: Kelowna, which initially tackled a rabbit problem with a cull, and then moved to trapping and sterilization, now has a ban on selling unsterilized rabbits, while Richmond city council has voted unanimously to ban the sale of rabbits in pet stores.

What’s necessary

On marmots and rabbits.

UVic rabbits are cute and they do give the school a certain charm. But you’d be naïve to think life is paradise for these animals.

For every rabbit we see soaking up the sun and being fed by adoring first-year students, there are many more moments of freezing cold, starvation, injury and illness. Problems that are only exacerbated the larger the population is allowed to get.

If you can’t stand to let your mind linger on rabbits in their darkest times, don’t. But have the strength to let those who can, who share a compassion for all life, do what’s necessary to correct a situation in which humans are an inextricable part of the equation.