$317.46 per rabbit

[thumper]

Over the past 4 years, the Town of Canmore has paid a contractor $240,000.00 to trap 756 feral rabbits. Presumably, the Town has also incurred further costs in administering the contract, dealing with the ensuing legal action that was launched against it, and in fielding complaints by various bunny-huggers and animal rights organizations.

These are not wiley Snowshoe hares, or skittish Jack rabbits - these are cute, little domestic rabbits - gone 'wild' ! They are thought to be attracting natural predators like coyotes and cougars into town.

In the 1st year, a bunny organization took the live-trapped rabbits, had volunteer Calgary vets neuter them, and sent them to bunny sanctuary forever homes - but the Town refused to finance this, and the huggers quickly ran out their own funds.

Since then, the bunnies have been gassed and sent to the Birds of Prey rehab centre near Lethbridge for bird food. I'm not sure if the shipping costs are included in the $240,000.00.

At $317.46 per rabbit, I can't wait to see how much it will cost us when the Sundre 'wild horses' find their way into our town !

[nimrod]

When this first hit the airwaves, back when, i knew there was going to be a problem, wish I was closer a year or so ago to put in my resume to trap these cute cuddly little breeders, if they don't get a handle on this it will be way too big of a job for most to handle, perfect chance to organize a town meeting for all to come to, so the contract person can do the job right

just my take on this.

[From The Hip]

Originally Posted by thumper

Over the past 4 years, the Town of Canmore has paid a contractor $240,000.00 to trap 756 feral rabbits. Presumably, the Town has also incurred further costs in administering the contract, dealing with the ensuing legal action that was launched against it, and in fielding complaints by various bunny-huggers and animal rights organizations.

These are not wiley Snowshoe hares, or skittish Jack rabbits - these are cute, little domestic rabbits - gone 'wild' ! They are thought to be attracting natural predators like coyotes and cougars into town.

In the 1st year, a bunny organization took the live-trapped rabbits, had volunteer Calgary vets neuter them, and sent them to bunny sanctuary forever homes - but the Town refused to finance this, and the huggers quickly ran out their own funds.

Since then, the bunnies have been gassed and sent to the Birds of Prey rehab centre near Lethbridge for bird food. I'm not sure if the shipping costs are included in the $240,000.00.

At $317.46 per rabbit, I can't wait to see how much it will cost us when the Sundre 'wild horses' find their way into our town !

Cripes I dont get $317 if I do a hotshot to Lethbridge and they are few and far between.Wish I had the cushy overpaid job of culling fluffy bunnies in Canmore....in 5 years I could retire to Thailand.

FTH

[tri777]

..

[Erik]

My hounds love Canmore. Those ski-vacation bunnies are much easier on the Beagle than the tough and crusty jack rabbits here at home. Wonder if we could get a contract?

[sillyak]

Wow!

I used to be paid a buck a mole when I trapped moles for a farmer in my youth. I was ripped off!

[catnthehat]

I think they should import coyotes to control the ....
Waitaminit , never mind. !
Cat

[Grizzly Adams]

Last time I was in Canmore, there were still rabbits running around, what a surprise.

Grizz

[Erik]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

Last time I was in Canmore, there were still rabbits running around, what a surprise.

Grizz

Tons of them there this summer. It's laughable. An unsolvable problem.

[Mulehahn]

although rabbits can breed fairly quickly they spend little time out of their warrens in the winter. Further, their warrens, while can be fairly extensive are usually easy to identify and determine entances/exits. The easiest way is to cap the warrens and gas them. Carbon monoxide works well if you don't want to use poison. These are not hares or jack rabbits.

[Weedy1]

That's about a 1/2 a rabbit a day. What are these, Killer Bunnies?
I think Canmore needs to buy one raptor with a keen sense for Thumper, or fire their council. Somebody should also be looking at the terms of the contract and who it was awarded to. Maybe a little too much granola crunching going on in that town, time to get down to business.

[thumper]

They're active on sunny days, no matter how cold. By winter's end, most have frozen parts of their ears off. Most of them live under crawl spaces, decks, in piles of pallets or under C-cans. We see a few on almost every daily walk.

[vcmm]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

I think they should import coyotes to control the ....
Waitaminit , never mind. !
Cat

Dang Cat, Never mind the coyotes. I'm going into the rabbit business.Easier work on an old guy.

[leeaspell]

Sounds like Canmore needs some newfies. They'll pay you for the rabbits

[dj240]

Damm
I would do it for a flat of beer and a brick of 22's

[TimeOff]

Need to make it a municipal event similar to this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76IGLi6jWI

[Kingfisher]

Of course the guy trapping them will never get them all. Why would he risk loosing $60,000 a year? He's hoping no one yells too loud. I'm sure the bunny huggers don't want him to shoot them with a .22 or even a pellet gun. So he is left to trap them. He has a great gig and hopes everyone of the bunny huggers keep him working for decades.

[Weedy1]

Originally Posted by leeaspell

Sounds like Canmore needs some newfies. They'll pay you for the rabbits

[Weedy1]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

Of course the guy trapping them will never get them all. Why would he risk loosing $60,000 a year? He's hoping no one yells too loud. I'm sure the bunny huggers don't want him to shoot them with a .22 or even a pellet gun. So he is left to trap them. He has a great gig and hopes everyone of the bunny huggers keep him working for decades.

OK I see now, the granola crunchers can let Thumper thrive on their own piece of heaven. No access for Elmer, no stew.

The program is most effective when trapping occurs on both public and private property. If you have rabbits in your area, please consider signing up to allow trapping on your property. Property owners who want the contractor to remove feral rabbits from their property in the fall should fill out a private property access agreement form: Feral rabbit removal request info

http://www.canmore.ca/Municipal-Serv...ment-Plan.html

[Kim473]

Fur lined gloves and hats.

[The Cook]

Have a friend on the bunny removal list and when the trapper caught a lactating female my friend was told they could not euthinize a lactating female or baby bunnies. Job security I guess. Funny thing is there are none in my neighborhood, go figure,

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

I think they should import coyotes to control the ....
Waitaminit , never mind. !
Cat

Thought the problem was the cougars coming into town for dinner and having puppies for dessert.

Grizz

[dgl1948]

A few years ago someone suggested paying kids a bounty of 50 cents a rabbit. That would be cheaper and a lot more effective.

[KegRiver]

Lets put this in prospective. $60,000.00 a year is not huge wages.

Wildlife control can be a lot more expensive then that. Something the anti trappers don't think about.

When there is no competition, and one takes training and is called a professional or an expert, cost can multiply many many times that.
And that's just one species.
It can get a lot worse.

Some jurisdictions could be looking at hiring several animal control specialists should trapping totally disappear. They could be facing controlling Beaver, Coyote, Skunk, even Norway Rats plus feral pets such as rabbits.

$240,000.00 is a drop in the bucket compared to a whole animal control department complete with office, shop, clerical staff, vehicles and tools.
All very possible, I say, inevitable, should trapping become a thing of the past.

And that doesn't even take into account the occasional outbreak of Rabies, and other nasty diseases that come with overpopulation.

I wonder what the cost of controlling problem bears in BC towns is.
You think controlling 700 plus rabbits is high. How'd you like to see the bill for controlling Bears in BC towns?

In a four year period from 2011 to 2015 the BC Ministry of Environment recorded 10,529 responses to problem bear reports.
From those responses they recorded 2,357 bears killed by conservation offices. That's for Black Bears only. Grizzly bears are recorded seperatly.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/cos/info/wildlife_human_interaction/docs/PredatorStatistics2015-16_BlackBear_Oct.pdf


The cost is not given but one can bet it's a lot higher then $240,000.00
These are trained professionals with offices, office staff, shops, vehicles tools, the whole nine yards and we pay for them through taxes. Or rather BC does.

And this does not even take into account the over 150 orphaned cubs this record shows they had to deal with.

The same thing happens in Alberta, and we DO pay for it, but I don't see any numbers published with regards to that work. And for now, our cost is relatively low compared to what it WILL be if trapping disappears forever.

Should that happen, SRD could not keep up and a whole new department would be the result, with a lot more staff and equipment then what SRD has now.

$240,000.00 is a super bargain in comparison to what it could be.

[thumper]

Heck, a hundred bucks a rabbit and those kids could finance their school trips they're always fundraising for, while saving us taxpayers a bundle!

[Bushrat]

Thinkin I'll head down that way with a few traps, catch a bunch and bring them here and let them go all over town. I will have my friends make a barrage of rabbit complaints, at the same time I will lobby town council to provide me an animal control contract $$$$$$. I will catch rabbits on one side of town and release them on the other. I will do this until I can retire.

[michaelmicallef]

I tried to catch a couple while in Canmore for myself but got
Nervous when some tree huger types were eyeing me up. Wish I would have caught them though. Yummy

[EZM]

If this was 30-40 years ago they would have just handed out a few dozen pellet guns to the neighborhood kids and gave them each a tin of pellets ........

Pellet guns are also effective on hippies and beatniks.

These birkenstock wearing, granola munching, dread lock growers fail to understand these cottontails are an invasive species and need to be eradicated.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by EZM

If this was 30-40 years ago they would have just handed out a few dozen pellet guns to the neighborhood kids and gave them each a tin of pellets ........

Pellet guns are also effective on hippies and beatniks.

These birkenstock wearing, granola munching, dread lock growers fail to understand these cottontails are an invasive species and need to be eradicated.

LOL You got that right.

On both counts.

[mudbug]

Canmore should be thankful that bunnies like my former pet bunny Lola weren't in their town, if they had that many Lola's Canmore would have been reduced to rubble by now lol