This problem will surely multiply if the province doesn't act.
Shortly after Delta launched a $60,000 program to catch, sterilize and release those pesky rabbits that once roamed Ladner's civic precinct, it put forward a motion that asks Victoria to ban the sale of unsterilized rabbits in pet stores.
The motion, which will be discussed later this year at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, is absolutely critical if we're to eliminate instances where the abandonment of a few pet rabbits morphs into a full-scale crisis.
First it was the University of Victoria, where as many as 1,500 rabbits had overrun the campus. Delta is paying the price for allowing its rabbit population increase to 500 and now the Richmond Auto Mall is dealing with an estimated 300 to 400 rabbits on its grounds.
It's one thing to extinguish these fires wherever they break out, but it only deals with the effect, not the cause. As long as unsterilized bunnies are offered for sale, they will be bought, fussed and, in some unfortunate cases, abandoned, most often in public areas.
And that's when they start to multiply. We've seen the impacts of this cycle as each of the rabbit hot spots started out innocently enough with a non-threatening handful of these cuddly creatures.
I wonder how many more colonies are out there, still in their infancy, but primed to explode to unmanageable proportions.
I drove past Holly Park the other day and saw three rabbits sunning themselves in the undeveloped area west of the grass soccer field. A couple of days later I spotted another scurrying among the landscaping near the Ladner Community Centre.
As we all know, it doesn't take many bunnies to reach a critical mass. I'm not suggesting we're going to have another full-fledged colony in these parts as I think civic officials have learned a costly lesson so wouldn't allow it to get that far.
However, as long as unsterilized rabbits are being sold, and then abandoned, the possibility of it happening somewhere else is very real. It starts out harmless enough as it's usually considered a novelty to have a handful of cuddly bunnies suddenly appear in a park or other public place.
They're seen as an attraction, particularly for young kids, who arrive with carrots and other produce to feed their new friends.
Before long, though, their numbers become problematic. It's happened here and without a province-wide ban, it's sure to happen elsewhere.
