City fends off legal challenge to bunny roundup

By Ron Seymour – Kelowna Daily Courier
2008-05-15

A possible legal challenge to Kelowna‘s rabbit-reduction scheme looks to have been averted by city staff.

Four of the five firms and groups whose tenders were rejected by the city suggested this week that the request for proposals would have to be reissued.

They based that assertion on a motion passed unanimously by council at Monday‘s meeting, asking staff to talk with the winning bidder, EBB Environmental Consulting, about ways to minimize the number of rabbits that would be killed.

“By telling staff to continue talking with EBB, that meant the entire process was no longer fair and open for the rest of us,” Roxanne Woldenga, one of the losing bidders, said Wednesday.

But the motion that was passed by council included an important proviso: that the city‘s purchasing manager first advise on whether further contract negotiations would even be legally possible between staff and EBB Consulting.

“The advice from the purchasing manager is, ’No, you can‘t do that,‘” deputy city clerk Stephen Fleming said.

Council accepted EBB‘s low bid of $54,000 for a one-year control plan that includes live trapping and the subsequent killing of the rabbits.

It‘s possible some of the rabbits will be given to groups like The Responsible Animal Care society, whose members have already trapped and relocated more than 200 bunnies.

Doing so would be in EBB‘s best interest, parks manager Joe Creron suggested, since killing fewer rabbits would mean lower costs for the Lower Mainland-based firm.

But TRACS spokeswoman Sinnika Crossland says the group would need funding to provide for the rabbits‘ well-being for the rest of their lives in sex-separated, secure pens.

Crossland describes the rabbits as “beautiful, innocent, wonderful creatures,” and wonders why Kelowna‘s decision is to “kill, kill, kill.”Between last Thursday and Monday‘s council meeting, the city received almost 50 e-mails or letters from people on the rabbit issue, with all correspondents opposed to the idea of killing the animals