Those rascally rabbits

Ron Seymour Kelowna Daily Courier

Authority for coming up with a solution to Kelowna‘s rabbit woes has been bounced over to the Central Okanagan Regional District. City council voted unanimously Monday to ask the regional animal-control service to consider options, which range from killing the rabbits to sterilizing them to rounding them up and putting them in big pens. “We will review the options and get back to the city on what they cost,” said Coun. Robert Hobson, who is also chairman of the regional district board. Whatever control methods are recommended, some kind of action is likely to come sooner than later, as the rabbit population is expected to increase dramatically in the spring. “I would like to have a short timeline on our conversation with the regional district,” said Coun. Norm Letnick. “So we can take action before they proliferate, as we all know they do.” Estimates of the city‘s feral rabbit population range from about 650 to a couple thousand, city council heard. The rabbits were originally concentrated along Enterprise Way, but are now spreading into other parts of the city. Dealing with the rabbits could be a sensitive issue, several councillors noted, because some people feel sorry for the animals and are out feeding them. On the other hand, the rabbits have caused significant damage to landscaping, pose a threat to farms and may even undermine, through their burrowing, the foundations of buildings.

Several councillors expressed support for the idea of culling the rabbit colonies by killing some of the animals. Hobson, for example, said the current situation is not humane, with many rabbits falling prey to coyotes, being run over by cars or starving to death. “It‘s just not natural to have that many (rabbits) living in an urban environment,” he said. As much as some people might get upset by the idea of a rabbit cull, Coun. Carol Gran, who was raised on a farm, said the issue had to be put in perspective. “We kill and butcher nice little calves, cows and chickens,” she said. A suggestion that the rabbits be sterilized, at a potential cost per animal of anywhere from $40 to $150, was impractical, Gran said, noting that amount of money would feed a lot of homeless people.