Bunny Rescue Drama

Meet the neighbors

One night, a deer apparently broke through the fence and some of the rabbits wandered into a 10-acre field on the neighboring property of retired attorney Barbara Smith.

“By the time I was called to the scene, 30 of the rabbits had already been shot by an exterminator,” said Vickery. “It was heartbreaking. We’d put so much work into it.” Even the officials from the federal Ministry of the Environment, which has been overseeing the whole project, were upset. “I thought the guy from the ministry was going to cry.”

Smith insisted that Vickery and Huntbatch knew that the rabbits were loose. She also said she called the authorities before taking action herself, but would not specify which authorities. “They told me ‘You deal with it’,” she said.

Vickery was initially denied access by Smith to her property, but ministry officials again intervened on her behalf. “They told me that this was my Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card. They warned me that if there was another escape they would have to confiscate the animals, but that they weren’t going to do that this time.”

The Law Society of British Columbia, which is the regulatory body for the province’s legal profession, opened an investigation into Smith’s conduct. “We can’t comment on this complain yet,” said Lesley Pritchard, the Law Society’s Communications Officer. “But we hold lawyers to a high standard of behavior.”

The best and the worst

Reaction to the fate of the rabbits is sharply divided. “People at the university have told me that nothing in its history has been as polarizing as this,” said Vickery. “It’s really brought out the best and the worst in people.”

The “worst” can be seen in some of the online complaining that the rabbits “are just rodents,” “should be turned into rabbit stew” and are a “tremendous waste of money that could be used to feed the homeless.”

The “best” is in the response of people from around the region who have jumped in to donate their money and their time. “It was a miracle, and terribly heartening, that we raised the funds we needed so quickly,” said Vickery.

Action movie hero to the rescue

One of the people riding to the rescue of the rabbits has been action movie star Steven Seagal, who happened to be in the region visiting the Thrangu Tibetan Monastery. Seagal, a deeply committed Buddhist, came out to the sanctuary at Coombs to see the rabbits.

“It was so nice,” said Vickery. “This guy who’s done all these violent action movies has these Buddhists following him around as he comes by to help some innocent bunnies. Who’d have thought it … Steven the Blackbelt comes to our rescue!”

Several people involved in the rescue believe that a donation is in the works, but said they could not confirm it.

Texas bound?

While spaying and neutering continues apace for the 250-plus rabbits now at the parrot sanctuary at Coombs (14 veterinarians offered their services), there are hundreds more awaiting removal from the grounds of the college. “I’d say there are about a thousand,” said University of Victoria’s Patty Pitts. “But there’s really no way of being sure.

Many of the rabbits still on campus may soon be headed south to a sanctuary in East Texas.

Laura-Leah Shaw, a federal and provincial candidate for office from Canada’s Green Party, has been helping to find refuges for the rabbits. “We called virtually every sanctuary we could find around North America,” she said. “We found one in Texas that offered to work with us.”

The Texas sanctuary is the Wild Rose Rescue Ranch, whose founder, Georganne Lenham, is a federally and state licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Most of the animals she cares for are soon returned to the wild. But she told the Canadian newspaper The Province that the rabbits would be kept in special enclosures. “They will feel free and wild,” she said, “but they will be protected.”

First, though, the bunnies will have to burrow their way through some import-export regulations. Since they’ve been living feral on the college grounds, they are considered to be no longer stray pets, but rather wildlife. A spokesperson from the Ministry of the Environment said they require a detailed export plan, a Canadian wildlife possession permit and an import permit from Texas. Some of them have already been cleared for the long trip.

“So far, 47 of the rabbits have crossed the border into the United States and are at a sanctuary in Gig Harbor, Washington,” said Shaw. She added that another 60 will be on the way soon. “Our big need right now is transport. It’s a long trip from here to Texas. A few organizations have offered to help. The best thing of all would be if someone would donate the use of a plane so we could just fly them all down there.”

On the horizon: a happy end

Meanwhile, the bunnies still on the campus are safe from being rounded up and killed. Those already in sanctuary are adjusting to a good new life. And Vickery, a former nurse, is always on the move, caring for the animals, working with the government, raising the funds, answering the phones, and doing it all with remarkable calm.

Why has she devoted herself to this? “I don’t know. It’s where my heart is,” she said. “We’re all directed in different ways. I’ve done nursing. And I love all animals. But rabbits are what came into my circle. And on a spiritual level, this is where my heart is.”

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Notes on the rabbit rescue:
See Michael Mountain’s comment: The Great Bunny Rescue.
To support the care of the rabbits in Susan Vickery’s care, go to the UVic Feral Rabbit Rescue page.
To support Laura-Leah Shaw’s program to move more rabbits to the sanctuary in Texas, go to TRACS – The Responsible Animal Care Society.
Brennan Clarke reports regularly in The Globe & Mail. His latest story is here.
The Times Colonist also has regular coverage.
A lively online discussion has been going on since April at the online forum 30 Bananas a Day.