Bunnies Stage Harebreadth Escapes as Volunteers Cotton On to Roundup

The men and women came in scores on Saturday, equipped with long nets and cardboard cages for the capture. Some wore thick gloves to shield them from their prey’s sharp claws. Others carried food with which to trap the elusive creatures.

They all seemed ready for the challenge of rounding up the beasts.

But they were warned: While their prey looked cute and adorable and cuddly, they actually were clever, quick and incredibly hard to catch.

Thus the Great Bunny Roundup began at the 11-acre Marina del Rey Bird Conservation Area.

More than 30 people had come to the site--between Admiralty Way and Washington Street across from the Marina City Club--to help corral about 400 rabbits--most of them abandoned pets or their descendants--that live on the south side of the sanctuary.

The objective: to relocate them to the north side.

“This is not going to be easy. We’re all going to look a little silly chasing bunnies around,” said Leigh Platte, 44, lead volunteer of Marina Sanctuary Inc., a nonprofit group established to care for the assorted animals in the 11-acre area.

The south side, an area of about 3 1/2 acres of slightly wooded embankment, has been designated by Los Angeles County officials for an environmental overhaul. Rabbit burrows in the embankment and other factors have caused soil to erode into the muddy pond dividing the sides, causing problems with the area’s main purpose as a flood control basin.

Officials plan to stop the erosion by planting vegetation; the rabbits are being relocated to prevent them from nibbling on the new growth.

The roundup sounded easy enough. Volunteers from the sanctuary group and the county’s Department of Animal Control and minor lawbreakers serving hours of community work would attract the bunnies into six pens with food pellets, lettuce and bread, net them and carry them in boxes to the other side.

As expected, the bunnies high-tailed it toward the food bowls in the pens. But, otherwise, they didn’t cooperate.

A group of about six people quickly trapped 30 rabbits in a pen, but they didn’t catch a single one--the bunnies slipped under the walls of the pen and burrowed their way to safety.

“Our plan is simply not working,” sighed an exasperated Paul McGinnis, who spent his 43rd birthday bunny-grabbing.

Gradually, the workers began to get the hang of it and captured some of the creatures, but not without paying a price.

Herbert Gill, 62, received an inch-long gash on his hand from a bunny whose kick was worse than his bite. Still, Gill was quite effective in calming the captive he held in his bleeding hand, as he cooed: “C’mon sweetheart, don’t get excited. Somebody loves you, yes I do.”

Once carried to the north side, the rabbits were examined by two county veterinarians for disease and injury. They found only a few sick animals.

‘Fat and Pampered’

“The rabbits are all very fat and pampered,” said Josie Zabala, head veterinarian with the animal control department. “That’s because the volunteers take such good care of them.”

Despite the difficulties in corraling the frightened creatures, volunteers managed to relocate 176 rabbits. Volunteers predicted several additional weekends would be needed to finish rounding up 400 rabbits.

Several dozen chickens, too, must be carried to the north side, while the ducks will make their own way over, said Platte, a district manager for a pharmaceutical company and a Marina del Rey resident.

Marina Sanctuary Inc. was formed in 1982 by two local women who noticed abandoned animals in the area and began to feed and care for them.

“They need care. Ours is just the labor of love,” said one of the two, Irene Ashby, 66, who has spent almost seven days a week for the last five years caring for the animals. “Working here takes you out of this crazy world to be around animals. And I think we’ve got some of the smartest rabbits in the world here.”

The county is neutering the male rabbits, and the volunteer group is encouraging people to adopt some of the bunnies. However, Platte said the requirements for adoption are rigid, to ensure the animals get good homes.