Suit Targets Poisoning of Rabbits

As Easter weekend approaches, bunnies are in peril in some Orange County communities, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by two animal rights groups.

The Animal Protection Institute and In Defense of Animals are suing the state Department of Fish and Game, saying the agency failed to enforce a state law that says wild rabbits may not be poisoned.

The groups say that nine gated communities in Orange County have contracts with pest control companies to poison cottontail rabbits with Diphacinone, which stops blood clotting and causes internal bleeding.

Rabbit carcasses are rarely removed from the neighborhood and pose a danger to family pets and children, said Nicole Paquette of the Animal Protection Institute.

“We just want them to stop killing the bunnies,” Paquette said. The label for the poison “says you must burn or bury the carcass because it’s that toxic.”

Officials at the attorney general’s office and Department of Fish and Game said they had not seen the lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court and would not comment.

In Defense of Animals spokesman Bill Dyer said many residents wanted the rabbits exterminated because they eat ornamental bushes. If residents planted bushes that rabbits don’t like, the animals would leave, he said.

Wildlife and human populations have clashed often as Orange County has grown. In May, complaints that Seal Beach’s Leisure World was becoming overrun with hundreds of wild rabbits led to plans to shoot them. Public outcry and objections from the city’s chief of police, Michael Sellers, persuaded city officials to call off the hunt.