It was all supposed to be hush-hush, but a reservist major who lives nearby has discovered that the historic military chapel in Discovery Park is going to be used as a temporary hutch for rabbits captured in Woodland Park.
Maj. Brian Harris said he first noticed lights in the long-closed chapel a week or so ago, and he asked people who came to church in several cars the next day what was happening. The people weren't eager to talk, according to the major.
"I thought it was kind of strange because they wouldn't tell me what was going on," added Harris, who said that he saw numerous cages and bales of hay in the building.
The people - all volunteers, according to Seattle Parks and Recreation - finally came clean and told him the rabbits picked up in Woodland Park would be sterilized and allowed to recuperate in the chapel before they were shipped off to a rabbit sanctuary, he said.
But Harris also said he was urged not talk to talk about the halfway-house hutch "because people might think it was inappropriate."
Harris is one of those people.
"Being in the military and a bit of a military history buff," he wrote in an e-mail to the News, "it appears to me that Parks and Rec is a little out of bounds and not taking into account all of the human history that has transpired in that chapel."
It's not that Harris has anything against the furry critters. "We actually have a couple of bunny rabbits ourselves," he said of his family, which lives in one of the houses on Officers Row.
But having a couple of pet rabbits is one thing; using the chapel as a hutch is another, according to Harris. "It just didn't seem appropriate to take a fairly nice building to house hundreds of bunny rabbits," he said.
Actually, only up to 30 rabbits will make their temporary home in the chapel because that's all rabbit sanctuaries will take, said Parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter. In addition, the captures will be stag-gered, she said. "Some days there will be rabbits there; some days there won't."
Roughly 30 rabbits were also relocated to sanctuaries last year, when they were housed temporarily in a warehouse at the former Sand Point Naval Base, she added.
But that Sand Point building is no longer available for rabbit relocations because activities have been scheduled in it, Potter said of the reason the chapel will be used for that purpose this year.
Whether relocating 30 rabbits a year will make a dent in the constantly growing population is unclear. At last count, there were approximately 150 rabbits in Woodland Park, she said.
However, the volunteers won't capture any rabbits if there's not a home for them beforehand, Potter added. "The volunteers are looking for other sanctuaries in the region that can take some."
The idea is still in the discussion stage, but there is a chance some of the sterilized rabbits could be put up for adoption at Seattle's Animal Control shelter on 15th Avenue West, she said.
Potter conceded that the parks department didn't announce the new use for the chapel because it was trying to avoid "a kerfuffle about it." The volunteers, it seems, are as shy as the animals they're saving. "They want to do their work quietly and go home," she noted.
Magnolia resident Heidi Carpine doesn't see what the big deal is about having rabbits in the church. "I'm OK with it," said Carpine, who was one of the community activists who spearheaded an effort to save the chapel when it was scheduled for demolition. The chapel was saved when Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board gave the building historic status, she said.
The chapel will be used a rabbit hutch for only a couple of months, starting this week or next, Potter said. But what Carpine would really like to see is the chapel being used by the public, and she talked about the parks department renting the church out for wedding parties as one example.
Before that happens, the city has to earmark budget money for a study to determine how to bring the church up to land-use-code standards both inside and out, Carpine said of an effort that is still ongoing.
However, she knows of one improvement that needs to be made immediately. A visit to the chapel four or five weeks ago revealed puddles of water inside, caused by a leaking roof. A temporary spray-on coating had been applied to the roof, but the coating is coming off because of the wind, Carpine said.
No problem, according to Potter, who said the parks department will reapply the spray-on coating to the roof. "We don't want wet bunny rabbits," she said. Otherwise the building is in good shape, according to Potter. "There's power and there's running water and there's heat," she said.
Parks is kicking in $10,000 for feeding the rabbits, and the veterinarians who sterilize the animals will do it at cost, Potter added. And in the end, there will be no sign that rabbits ever made their home in the Discovery Park church, she said.
"The volunteers will leave the place cleaner than they found it; they're very good scouts."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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