A Richmond rabbit rescue group wants all invasive rabbits to be removed from public areas, instead of just “nuisance” ones.
Rabbitats CEO Sorelle Saidman was responding to a city proposal to manage the European rabbit population, which it says poses health risks to native rabbit species — by spreading rabbit hemmoragic disease — and is damaging natural habitats.
Last year, the not-for-profit removed 118 rabbits from public property, relocating them to a sanctuary, according to a report to city council’s parks, recreation and cultural services committee.
Saidman said controlling the population can be done by removing all the rabbits from an area.
“We’ve been successful with UVic, the Richmond Auto Mall, we’ve done a couple of strata complexes including the Dover neighbourhood,” Saidman told the committee on Tuesday.
“…we haven’t actually been tasked with rabbit control because it’s been only city property and it’s only been the nuisance rabbits,” she added.
The city report states, despite trying different strategies over the past two years, Richmond’s feral rabbit population doesn’t seem to be declining.
But Coun. Harold Steves disputed this, saying the problem isn’t as bad as it was several decades ago, adding there there used to be a “plague of rabbits” in the Agricultural Land Reserve south of Steveston Highway 30 to 40 years ago, but these were wiped out by coyotes and disease.
“The question I’ve got is, is there really a problem? What’s wrong with the way it’s working out now? Because I’m sure we’ve got less rabbits in the agricultural area than we had 20 or 30 years ago,” said Steves.
In addition to raising public awareness, the city is looking at studying the rabbit situation to see how many there are and where they are concentrated.
The city is also proposing giving Rabbitats $15,000 to continue its work managing the population.
