Wabbit Season

Animal rescuers try to find a Texas home for Miami's unwanted bunnies

Comments (0) By Charles Siderius Thursday, May 1 2003

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"In spite of how bad it seems, shooting is a very humane method, even more so than darting. Darting, with the trauma and everything else, I'm sure a number of them would be killed. Shooting is instantaneous and it's painless," he says. "This is not something that we look forward to doing. Our focus and objective is human safety, human lives. We are addressing a problem. It's not that we are butchers."

Leaning on a wooden railing of a building at the Hutchins sanctuary where the Florida rabbits are being released, Kathy Rogers says they've received and released a couple of dozen rabbits onto about 240 acres of old landfill southeast of Dallas. The landfill closed about 15 years ago and poses no environmental threat to the rabbits, she says. Rogers, who operates Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc., said the Florida rabbits have bolted from their cages and jumped lively into the overgrown areas around the landfill.

Peter Calvin

A rabbit rescued from Miami International Airport awaits release into the safety of a sanctuary in Hutchins.

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"On the other side of the pond, there is a nice open area, plenty of vegetation," she says.

Although her sanctuary is already inundated with stray animals, many rescued from abusive environments, Rogers says she has room for a portion of the rabbits and is glad to be able to help.

"I think anytime anybody wants to take it upon themselves to even save one life, it's worth it."