The rabbit population has continued to grow at the University of Victoria, posing a potential hazard and triggering the school to begin a feral rabbit control management plan.
Despite being part of the campus lifestyle for years, on June 28 the university announced a feral rabbit management plan to reduce and control the estimated 1,600 rabbits on campus.
According to Thomas Smith, the executive director of facilities management at UVic, it has been common practice since the 1990s for owners to release their pets on campus at the end of the school year. The university has noticed a steady increase in the rabbit population since, Smith said.
The university said in its rabbit-dedicated blog it “used every media request as an opportunity to repeat the message to not abandon pet rabbits on campus. Unfortunately, our various attempts seem to have little impact.”
In the past, the school tried to find alternate solutions, such as giving the animals away as pets and avoiding lethal options. However, those efforts were unsuccessful.
“The rabbits constitute a safety threat . . . to community athletes,” Smith said. The new plan establishes rabbit-free zones on the outside of the road which circles the inner campus, Smith said.
Feral rabbits will be taken away from campus “through a combination of humane trapping and euthanizing and the community-arranged sterilization and relocation of Ministry of Environment approved sanctuaries and homes.”
The Texas-based Wild Rose Rescue Ranch has offered to take one thousand of the rabbits, according to the Globe and Mail.
The university will be working with the B.C. Ministry of Environment and the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals when the plan begins in late summer.
Only 200 sterilized rabbits will be allowed to stay on campus. Although Smith said the university needs to significantly reduce the rabbit population and damages and related costs have become unsustainable, there is no predicted completion date.
Smith said everything is “dependent on the capacity for the community to sterilize and relocate any rabbits.”
Even financial estimates could not be released because the university is still waiting upon community groups.
“There have been students who are upset at the thought of a cull but there are also students who understand the university’s position and that this is not a problem of our making,” Smith said.
One commenter on the UVic rabbit blog, Alexia, wrote: “No matter how many carefully-worded statements UVic comes up with, a cull is a cull.”
“Please name another university that slaughters its mascot while selling souvenirs made in their image.”
“The future of the rabbits on campus is a very emotional issue that prompts strong emotions,” Smith said. “There will always be people who are not comfortable with euthanizing any rabbits.”