(The website listed at the end of this story was corrected Monday, May 19.)The triangle of grass near Green Lake where the northbound Metro bus No. 358 exits Aurora Avenue North was a popular feature on the evening route, and the driver would announce, "Next on the right, Bunny Town." Children would press their faces to the glass to see the black, gray and brown bunnies foraging on grass in the meadow. Then, about a year ago, it seemed like the rabbits disappeared suddenly. Neighbors, bus riders and visitors to Green Lake thought the worst: They must have been trapped or poisoned. Arguments broke out at the North 64th Street block-watch party between people who thought this was OK and those who thought it was murder. Finally, the controversy died down, and life went on.I contacted the Seattle Parks Department to find out the whole story.UNSAFE TERRITORYThe rabbits were indeed captured and relocated, as planned in the Central Woodland Park Vegetation Management Plan, which has been around since 2003. Although the relocation was controversial with some people, those who know the hardships the park rabbits endured feel that they are better off being relocated. The park rabbits weren't always as happy as the public might like to believe. These rabbits were the offspring of abandoned pets, not native wildlife. Every winter they went hungry when the grass stopped growing and the visitors stopped bringing their children to feed the bunnies. Every spring in the busy Aurora Avenue corridor, the baby bunnies were crushed by cars. When rabbits became old, injured, or diseased, they received no medical care. They were hunted and eaten alive when cruel dog owners set their dogs loose on them in Woodland Park.Rabbits are very territorial. They live in family colonies and do not accept newcomers, such as the Easter bunnies the public dumps in the parks every spring. Cast-off pets not only are hungry and defenseless outdoors, but they are driven away by an established rabbit colony as competition.HAPPY HOMESThere was a much happier ending for most of the captured park rabbits.Over three months in 2006, the House Rabbit Society captured and relocated 54 rabbits to Rabbit Meadows Sanctuary in Redmond, Wash. Another capture effort was carried out in the winter and spring of 2007 by Friends of Park Rabbits (FoPR), a volunteer group that included some of the same people who captured the rabbits in 2006.FoPR humanely captured more than 100 rabbits in Woodland, Meridian and Green Lake parks between January and June of 2007.Working at night when rabbits are active, volunteers used box and stick traps, Have-a Heart live traps, food bait and fenced corrals in an effort that took many, many hours of volunteer time.As specified in the agreement with the parks department, no harmful traps or poisons were used. No rabbits were harmed during trapping, although some were captured with injuries that required treatment.The rabbits were examined by vets, spayed or neutered, and housed in a building at Discovery Park while they recovered. They had clean, dry straw and enough to eat - many for the first time in their lives.Unfortunately, an illness outbreak claimed the lives of 11 rabbits from the Bunny Town Triangle, but the relocation success rate was more than 90 percent. By July 2007 all of the captured rabbits were relocated to the Precious Life Animal Sanctuary in Sequim, Wash., where they are living out their lives.In the future, captured park rabbits will no longer be housed at Discovery Park. Instead, they will be taken directly to Seattle Animal Control. After being spayed or neutered, they will be relocated to the Sequim sanctuary.Volunteers and donations are welcome to help with rabbit rescue. Visit the website at www.preciouslifeanimalsanctuary.org for more information.Susan Plahn lives in the Green Lake neighborhood.[[In-content Ad]]
