David Wylie
Sterling News Service

March 13, 2004

KELOWNA I A plan to relocate a growing rabbit population that has colonized a busy industrial-area of Kelowna has drawn the ire of a local steel plant manager.

Harold Jantz, general manager of Enterprise Steel Fabricators Ltd., said The Responsible Animal Care Society (TRACS) and Kelowna's SPCA should just leave the animals alone. Both animal groups are considering ways to control the rabbit population along fast-developing Enterprise Way.

"I think they're a breath of fresh air. What's more innocent than a rabbit?" said Jantz. "The way they're being treated here, it's like Club Med for these guys."

Plus, relocating the rabbits would kill newborn litters, he added.

Jantz said his employees have set up a food trough and water system that nourishes the rabbits even through the winter. When the lunch truck pulls up and honks, the bunnies come hopping.

Six rabbits "just appeared" on the property several years ago, but now their ranks have grown to about 30.

Sinnika Crosland, spokeswoman for TRACS, estimated there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of the rabbits hopping around Dilworth Mountain along a set of railroad tracks. The colony may have been founded by family pets let loose, she added.

"They're not wild hares or anything. They're the kinds that you'd find in pet stores," she said.

Crosland has been joined by 30 volunteers willing to help trap the animals, cage them and then truck them to a safer spot on the Westside. "We want to help them. Some people love animals, but other people are short-tempered and we don't want bad things to happen," she said. "Some of them are getting hit by cars and there are dogs out there."

The Kelowna SPCA is planning to catch as many females as possible and spay them, but operations manager Robert Busch said he's still open to the possibility of moving the animals.

"They are reproducing to the point where they are causing a traffic problem," he said, adding that several of the rabbits have been brought to the shelter after being hit by cars.

Busch said most of the animals he has inspected are plump and healthy, thriving on an abundance of natural vegetation.
© The Vancouver Sun 2004