OMG, think of the cute little bunnies!!!1

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her209

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn...ornia/northern_california/11232241.htm
Orange County city gives community OK to shoot bothersome bunnies

Associated Press


MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - Bunnies beware.

Just days before Easter, the City Council has given a gated community permission to allow a sharpshooter to kill bothersome rabbits that have been nibbling on landscaped lawns, shrubs and plants and doing their bunny business everywhere.

Residents in the south Orange County retirement community Casta del Sol have complained for years about the proliferating population of rabbits.

"We're not trying to get rid of the rabbits at Casta del Sol," Bob Burdick, board president of the community's homeowners association, said Friday. "We're trying to eliminate them down to the point where their presence can be tolerated relative to the amount of landscaping and plants that they destroy and the amount of fecal matter they leave on patios and streets and sidewalks."

Approximately 3,000 older people live in the 1,927 homes at Casta del Sol, where rabbits have been an issue for years. About 1,000 residents participated in a survey and 88 percent were in favor of gaining permission from the city to shoot rabbits, Burdick said.

Pellet guns were used to shoot rabbits at Casta del Sol from 1991 until 1997, when Mission Viejo adopted a state Department of Fish and Game rule that banned the use of guns to ward off animals unless crops were at stake.

Residents at Casta del Sol then relied on the poison diphacinone to control the bunny population. State officials, however, banned the poison's use in urban areas in 2001.

Eleven months ago, the state attorney general ruled that rabbits could be exterminated with pellet guns, if they harmed shrubbery, and state Fish and Game officials adopted the policy in July 2004.

Casta del Sol residents then sought a variance of the city's firearm ordinance, which was granted this week by an unanimous City Council vote.

The council gave the homeowners association permission to hire a licensed pest control professional to shoot rabbits with a pellet gun from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Shooting won't start until May 1 at the earliest because the homeowners association still needs to find a licensed pest management company and notify all of its residents, Burdick said. Casta del Sol has been trapping rabbits, capturing about 100 a month, Burdick said.

Animal rights advocates said the rabbit problem can be managed without using guns or killing rabbits.

"There are nonlethal solutions to control the rabbits coming into a closed community," said Nicole Paquette, a lawyer with the Sacramento-based Animal Protection Institute. "There are repellants, there are alternative shrubbery you can plant and fencing mechanisms that can be done all rather than using lethal force to kill these animals."

Shooting the rabbits doesn't address the root problem and will only create a vacuum for more rabbits to come in from the community's neighboring public golf course and arroyo, she said.

"They are simply taking the easy route and they are basically going to keep a sharpshooter or pest control company in business for a long time," Paquette said.

Meantime, Mission Viejo planned to celebrate its annual Bunny Days family festival on Saturday.
Click to expand...
Its Easter weekend after all!
 
G

gistech1978

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2002
5,047
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as a subscriber and regular contributor to 'Rabbit Fancy' magazine.

I am equally shocked and appalled.

 
B

Bootprint

Diamond Member
Jan 11, 2002
9,847
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I can just see some rambo looking dude hunt for rabbits in his shubbery.

Picture rambo, large gun in one hand and binoculars around his neck, cooler next the lawn chair. Just waiting for the next fuzzy bunny to cross his line in the lawn.
 
her209

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
Originally posted by: Bootprint
I can just see some rambo looking dude hunt for rabbits in his shubbery.

Picture rambo, large gun in one hand and binoculars around his neck, cooler next the lawn chair. Just waiting for the next fuzzy bunny to cross his line in the lawn.
Click to expand...
Elmer Fudd.
 
NuclearNed

NuclearNed

Raconteur
May 18, 2001
7,850
342
126
Originally posted by: her209
Originally posted by: Bootprint
I can just see some rambo looking dude hunt for rabbits in his shubbery.

Picture rambo, large gun in one hand and binoculars around his neck, cooler next the lawn chair. Just waiting for the next fuzzy bunny to cross his line in the lawn.
Click to expand...
Elmer Fudd.
Click to expand...

...more like Karl the Groundskeeper.
 
Amused

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
56,720
17,232
146
Just release a couple large wildcats in the area and the bunnies will be brought under control.

Kill the snakes, live with rats. Kill the cats, live with bunnies.
 
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