If Canmore’s politicians choose lethal means to deal with its burgeoning bunny population, they will face a legal challenge from the Humane Society of Canada.
The organization’s chairman and CEO Michael O’Sullivan, in a recent letter to the Town’s mayor, said the group is opposed to the killing of Canmore rabbits because it is inhumane and doomed to failure.
O’Sullivan said if Canmore chooses a lethal solution to a human-caused problem the Humane Society will mount a legal challenge against it.
“As the Humane Society of Canada we feel we need to draw a line in the sand,” he said. “We hope it does not come to that because we want to work with people to solve this.”
He said a major concern for the organization is that if Canmore goes down that road it will set off a chain of events across the country encouraging other communities to deal with wildlife issues in a similar fashion.
“This is a political issue, not one of public health or safety,” O’Sullivan said. “As human beings we interfere with the natural world all the time and while nature is cruel, we don’t have to be.”
Canmore’s Mayor Ron Casey, however, disagrees with assessment of the situation by the national organization.
“They are incorrect in their assessment,” Casey said. “It is a wildlife issue for us, but it might not be for other communities. We are in an entirely different circumstance here.”
The feral rabbits, which are present throughout the community, are the offspring of domesticated pets that were released by their owners years ago.
While the rabbits look cute and cuddly, the mayor maintains they also act as a wildlife attractant for coyotes and cougars. If those species cause problems within the town’s limits as a result, the reaction by Fish and Wildlife is often to destroy them.
He questioned whether killing native species so non-native ones can continue to persist is better than a possible cull.
That being said, Casey said the Humane Society is jumping the gun.
“We have made a decision to do something around it, but we have not awarded the contract yet,” he said, adding the letter makes great press for the group. “If they cared, they would have contacted us before threatening to take us to court.”
Earlier this summer the municipality issued a request for proposals for management plans, both lethal and non-lethal, to address the unchecked feral rabbit population.
O’Sullivan said the Humane Society of Canada usually likes to quietly watch these kinds of situations, but it was contacted by a company that was going to bid on the contract.
It wanted the society’s endorsement for a plan to humanely euthanize the rabbits and use them as food for raptors.
“As sometimes happens people try to misrepresent our position, so we came out publicly,” O’Sullivan said.
The request for the society’s support thus spurred it into action to write the letter to the mayor so council is aware of its position with respect to a cull and that it does not support any tenders that would propose that type of management plan.
He also warned that a cull is “doomed to failure”.
If a cull were to reduce the number of feral rabbits, the ones remaining would have less competition for resources like food, water and shelter and the remaining animals could start to produce even more offspring.
A cull is an ineffective solution that could stimulate the rabbit population, O’Sullivan said, and Canmore will never see the creatures truly eliminated from its borders.
“There is no such thing as a 100 per cent solution,” he said. “I think people need to calm down and look at the alternatives.”
Even further, he said, it would be worth the Town’s time to find the people responsible for releasing the original group of rabbits that have since proliferated and hold them responsible in civil court.
O’Sullivan said Canmore politicians should want to be known as the ones that found a non-lethal solution, rather than the people that wasted taxpayers money to kill rabbits.
“It is more humane and puts the responsibility where it lies, which is with people and avoids stimulating the population,” he said. “Come up with a better solution and be a model to follow.”
