This relocation effort was mired in the usual politics, personality conflicts, and bungling bureaucracy well before it made headlines. Rabbit Meadows Sanctuary, operated by the non-profit House Rabbit Society, began working with Woodland Park in Seattle to relocate the bunnies in March of 2006 but after only eight days the agreement was terminated. "Internal problems" were exposed to the press by Sandi Ackerman, coordinator of the effort, so Seattle City Parks and local government abruptly ended the partnership.

Among the issues was the fact that the bottom floor of the building at Magnuson Park had been rented to the Drug Enforcement Agency to hold "training exercises" while on the top floor the rescued rabbits awaiting medical treatment were being housed. Sandi then made the decision to get the bunnies out of the building and relocated to a safe place.

More on this fiasco and human meddling can be found at: http://www.woodlandparkrabbits.org/IntheNews.html