The SPCA has said more than once that it approves of shooting rabbits, as long as it's done humanely. In other words, as long as it does not break the law by causing suffering.
The firm hired by the City of Kelowna to exterminate the rabbits confirms:
From: EBB Environmental Consulting
Mrs. Crosland,
Please consult the Wildlife Act and its consideration of Schedule C species. You will see that all the methods used by EBB are in alignment with the Act. As we have mentioned previously this technique is one of the tools that is considered both effective and humane by the SPCA and provincial officials. All of our employees involved in invasive species control are licensed and permitted to carry out their tasks.
Oliver Busby, MBA, R.P. Bio., P.Ag.
To: Sinikka Crosland
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: Kelowna rabbit extermination
Principal
EBB Environmental Consulting Inc.
Even though shooting animals is legal as long as it's done humanely, what is the BC SPCA, an animal welfare society and an animal protection society, doing condoning shooting pest-pets at all since it can't be possible to know that every death is a humane death? Why doesn't the SPCA just say that it does not condone shooting of animals as a method of pest control, as other BC animal welfare societies say?
Why hasn't the SPCA simply said that regardless of the Wildlife Act, it knows that rabbits, abandoned or not, are domesticated pets, because it has promoted them as pets for decades, and it has rehomed many of them, just as it does dogs and cats, and that it will not condone any solution for the rabbits that involves killing them.
Isn't that a better way to "educate" the public about animal welfare than to say it condones shooting abandoned pets?