Bridge bunnies breed and need a home

A drove of Dwarf Rabbits is recolonising The Rocks from its heartland under the Harbour Bridge and an array of government departments has been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

The drove began when a pair of the special breed escaped or were dumped from a house in Lower Fort Street, say residents who suspect it was a case of  ‘Christmas Pet Syndrome’.

Up to 30 of the animals now live under the bridge at Dawes Point, burrowing next to one of the pylons, but they have also spread to Observatory Hill, says Steve Parkes who lives nearby and who is collecting a petition to save the drove.

But the real champions of these Lagomorphs are Saule Balsyte and her mother Genute. They have badgered authorities for eight months with little result until now.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore declined to act despite her prominent stand on animal protection, saying the colony was on land controlled by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA).

The RSPCA was not interested because the rabbits are not native, despite their work saving cats and dogs which are also not native.

Animal Liberation doesn’t have the facilities to house the animals.

MLC Ian MacDonald, Minister for Forests and Mineral Resources, doesn’t want to know about it either.

But SHFA, while pointing out that the rabbits also graze on Council territory, is slowly coming to grips with the situation because its parkland is being damaged.

The Balsyte family has pleaded with SHFA Place Manager Vanessa Campbell not to simply poison the cuddly creatures who are quite tame as people have been feeding them.

The Balsytes want the animals captured live and given to good homes.

“Every animal has the right to life,” insists Saule, who fears for the rabbits having seen dogs chasing them and because they could become victims of human cruelty, or that SHFA might poison them or infect them with disease.

But SHFA said it would this month begin a program to humanely trap the rabbits.

The rabbits would be taken to a vet for a health check and any healthy animals offered for re-homing. SHFA had already received offers to re-home a dozen of the rabbits.

SHFA had received advice that it is likely some animals were diseased and may need to be euthanised. This would be determined by the vet.

The program to trap the animals had been developed in consultation with veterinarians and the RSPCA.

Meanwhile the family has mounted a campaign to find homes, and through the Animal League has found a woman on the Central Coast who rescues animals and who can take all the rabbits, de-sex them and then help find homes for them.

But homes will still be needed and the Balsyte family is appealing to City News readers to help. Rabbit lovers can phone 0405 005 332 or email gss.balsiai@gmail.com.

How to trap the bunnies is also a problem. Suggestions so far include netting their burrows and releasing a muzzled ferret into the warren, scaring the rabbits into the nets; or constructing a rabbit-proof cage, baiting it with rabbit food, waiting a few days until the rabbits are comfortable inside, then closing the door. But neither method is likely to catch all the animals and a single doe can produce up to 50 kittens in a year.

by Michael Gormly