by Amy Van Veen (Contributer) – Email
Bunnies tend to do what they’re known to do, and as a result, over the last couple of years the bunny population at the University of Victoria has been growing steadily. In 2008, the university sent out an awareness campaign urging owners of bunnies not to release their pets onto the greens on campus, which is how this non-native population problem started.
In addition to posing a continued nuisance at UVic, bunnies are a bother close to home, at UFV’s very own Abbotsford campus. In order to prepare ourselves, it’s important to look at the battle over bunnies that is currently taking place on other BC campuses. Tame and non-violent solutions proved ineffective at UVic, and more drastic measures needed to be taken.
Last September, permits were acquired to remove and sterilize the bunnies. This permit, though, expires on March 31, 2011, so UVic is hoping to capture as many rabbits as they can by February 28, which will allow them enough time over the following month to arrange for placements in sanctuaries and the appropriate sterilization procedures to take place before the permit expires. As a result, any bunnies found after February 28 will be trapped and humanely killed off campus.
Reading up on the recent bunny cull debates at the University of Victoria can be an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. Legitimate news sources offer readers from the outside an opportunity to get an objective look at the facts. Once you dive into discussion forums, especially on the Facebook group “UVic Bunnies,” you get an entirely different look at passion fuelled by ignorance and college students wanting to be alternative and cause-related.
Of all the causes to choose, students all over UVic’s campus have chosen the “inhumane” treatment of the bunny population. Why? Because they’re adorable. If there was a cockroach or rat population problem, I’m sure the weights would tip in favour of extermination, but since bunnies remind us of our storybook friends Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, people find it necessary to personify them.
Disney is not a representation of reality, and these bunnies need to be seen for what they are: pests. The facts prove that the rampant bunny population at this island university is out of control. Rabbits are burrowers, and according to their nature, they dig holes all over campus, which causes harm and risk of injury when these holes invade the athletic fields, putting UVic’s athletes in danger.
Another part of rabbit nature is the need to defecate, which has contributed to the spread of disease for humans, other animals and plant species across campus. Any time a non-native animal is introduced into a new environment; there are serious natural consequences for the existing species and for the human population. This bunny infestation began with pet owners thinking that by dropping off their used pets and “returning” them to a natural environment, they were doing them a favour.
So to all those who are pro-bunny and anti-solution, how about taking a critical look at the human agency behind the infestation and assign blame to the problem-makers, not the problem-solvers. Let the problem-solvers deal with the pests as needed.
