Keeper of Ill Rabbits Sentenced

An Ojai woman who lived in a minivan with 20 rabbits and kept 70 more in a squalid barn was ordered Monday to perform 160 hours of community service designed to teach her how to properly care for animals.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger said he did not believe 60-year-old Norma Keyzers intended to harm the rabbits.

For that reason, Cloninger spared Keyzers a possible six-month jail sentence for misdemeanor animal neglect and placed her on three years’ probation with various terms that included community service.

“I don’t see a need for jail time,” Cloninger said. “She was just in over her head and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Ventura County Humane Society officers arrested Keyzers in June after they found her keeping the 90 sick and wounded rabbits in an Oxnard barn and in her van.

Many of the animals suffered from disease, broken backs, broken necks, open wounds and chewed ears, according to prosecutors. Of the 90 rabbits, most were euthanized.

Before she was arrested, Keyzers, whose last permanent address was in Ojai, had turned over 141 other rabbits to a ranch for abused and neglected animals in Santa Paula.

Prosecutors said Keyzers thought she was running a rabbit rescue and did not believe she had done anything wrong.

Keyzers reiterated that point during Monday’s sentencing hearing--balking at probationary terms that would have barred her from owning any animals for three years.

“I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong,” Keyzers told the judge.