Rescuing UVic's rascally rabbits

By Kerrie-Ann Schoenit
Saanich News (online)

Wednesday, September 03, 2008 | 1:00 PM

While disgruntled neighbours whine about the University of Victoria's exploding rabbit population, one woman is tackling the problem with her own bare hands.

Janitor Lesley Sanford rescued her first rabbit four years ago. She scooped up the baby, suffering from an eye disease, and plopped it in her shirt pocket.

Working the night shift at UVic, she says she's seen it all. "Sickos" trying to stomp on them, rabbits swept away in the talons of hawks and owls, and more recently, rabbits made homeless by construction on campus.

Rabbits, she explained, are territorial so they can't just move to a new patch of grass when they lose their turf.

Sanford now shares her Highlands house with nineteen rabbits, some with missing limbs or eyes. Others were nursed back to health after being abandoned by their mothers.

"I just bond with everything in about two seconds, so I'm a goner no matter what it is," she said.

Adept with animals (Sanford also has four dogs, seven cats, a horse, a cockatoo and a chinchilla), she's cut out gangrene and sewn up torn limbs while waiting for the rabbits to grow old enough to visit the veterinarian.

Earlier this week, she had four females spayed. She jokes her passion will drain her retirement savings, though she receives some help from the SPCA.

While the university knows of her work, it doesn't contribute a cent, she says.

"I'm one person with one wage," Sanford said.

With its new "don't feed" campaign, UVic is trying to pass the rabbits off as wildlife, she said. "They're not. They're domestic feral and I won't help perpetuate that lie."

She does have the support, however, of Saanich pet store owner, Lisa Nitkin.

Pet stores have been criticized for indirectly contributing to the wild rabbit population by selling cheap, unfixed rabbits.

Nitkin, who owns Pets West in Broadmead Village, didn't want to be lumped in with this group.

"We'd been hearing about this problem ongoing for about 15 years now and we said, 'If we're not part of the solution then we're part of the problem,'" she said. "We didn't want to be promoting this idea that rabbits are disposable."

About six months ago, she changed her retail store's policy to sell only rescued rabbits. She has them spayed or neutered for $75 and sells them for this price.

The two rabbits she's selling at her store now are adoptees from Sanford.

Sales, however, have plummeted since she raised her price from about $25. Nitkin has gone from selling about two rabbits per month to one every two months.

Still, Nitkin has no intention to return to the old ways. Relying on pet-accessory sales to make a profit, she's hoping that attitudes will change.

"More and more, people are taking responsibility (for their cats)," Nitkin said. "We're not at that level yet with rabbits."