Bunnies Need Homes : Restaurant Rabbits Have Multiplied, Must Go Forth

On Wednesday afternoon, Marla Behm was on her knees in the grass outside El Torito Restaurant and Cantina, coaxing four rabbits to eat some lettuce from her hand.

“I love them,” said Behm, of Fullerton, who frequents the restaurant so she can watch the rabbits while she eats. “I give them all my leftovers, my hors d’oeuvres too. They eat anything. Even tortilla chips.”

But for Behm and other customers who love El Torito’s rabbits, it may soon be a case of hare today, gone tomorrow.

The domestic rabbits, some abandoned by their owners and others born at the site, have lived for years in burrows in a hilly, shaded greenbelt area at Katella Avenue and State College Boulevard that separates the El Torito--formerly a Casa Maria--from a Charley Brown’s restaurant.

Over time, they have become a mealtime attraction. The rabbits are so accustomed to being fed by restaurant patrons that they approach customers at patio tables.

But in recent months, the rabbit population has exploded, putting the furry animals in danger from malnutrition, disease and motorists. Drivers have run over several of the creatures in the restaurant parking lot and nearby streets, said Lt. Marie Hulett-Curtner, public education officer and spokeswoman for Orange County Animal Control.

In the hope of finding homes for the estimated 75 rabbits, the management of the restaurants, animal control officials and the nonprofit House Rabbit Society have begun an adoption program--much to the dismay of some restaurant patrons.

“I think they should leave some of them here to keep the atmosphere,” said Tom Hruden, an Anaheim businessman who lunches at El Torito frequently. “But they should let people take (some of) them as pets when they’re young.”

Linda Buckley and Clydora White said they always choose a window table in the bar so they can watch the rabbits.

“That’s why we come here. We enjoy watching them,” said Buckley, who works nearby and believes the rabbits should be left alone. “I’ve had rabbits at home. But here they have a place to be free.”

The rabbits don’t pose a public health risk, Hulett-Curtner said, but don’t fare well on the diet that the restaurant’s customers and employees offer them.

“Rabbits don’t live a very good life at the restaurant,” she said. “People think it’s OK to abandon them. But they’re dying of disease and malnutrition. They’re domesticated animals and they can’t care for themselves. They need real homes.”

With no one willing to assume responsibility for the rabbits’ welfare, the adoption program is the only option, Hulett-Curtner said. A spokeswoman for El Torito Restaurants Inc. said there are too many rabbits for the restaurant to care for.

Signs will be posted later this week warning people against abandoning their pets, which is a misdemeanor, she said.

But the rabbit population can be expected to keep growing, because rabbits can reproduce like, well, rabbits--every 28 to 32 days.

Laurie Gigous, co-manager of the 250-member House Rabbit chapter here, said the group is looking for bunny lovers willing to treat the rabbits as house pets. People wishing to adopt the rabbits will be screened by the society.

“It’s hard to find homes to conform to what we think they should have. You want the best for them,” she said. “We don’t want the bunny put in a back-yard hutch with food and water.”

Gigous said the rabbits should be removed because they’re not getting proper food and care.

“Any domestic pet cannot be let go and be expected to survive,” she said. “They’re used to people taking care of them.”

The society hopes to take in some rabbits, have them spayed or neutered and house-trained, and placed in foster homes until they are adopted, said Laura Shortall, the chapter’s manager. The group charges a $35 fee to cover the costs of that program, Shortall said.

But people unwilling to adopt rabbits via that program will be given them free of charge, along with information on house training and caring for a rabbit themselves, she said.

El Torito patron Paul Partaine, who works in Anaheim, said he favors the adoption program. “It’s no point to see them hit by a car,” he said. “And it’s not too appetizing to walk up to the restaurant if you see one get hit.”

But restaurant patrons such as Buckley and White say they won’t come back if the rabbits disappear.

“We probably won’t come here to eat,” White said. “They’ll lose two good customers,” White said.