Day 4: The Bunny Whisperers

We ate breakfast this morning at The Eatery, a country inn attached to a small resort settlement called Clark's Skagit River Resort. The food was good and the setting pleasant, but what really caught my attention was the menu. It featured stories about the resort's history. The best - and funniest - of these was the one that explained the history of the rabbits living in and around the grounds.

In short, the story tells of the exploding population of domestic rabbits released in Friday Harbor in the 60's, and the obvious solution, which was: huntin' expeditions. A couple of the resort's owners captured a few live rabbits and began raising them in hutches. From there, the story outlines the cyclic rise and fall of the rabbit population at the resort, as the bunnies are variously preyed upon by hawks, owls, bobcats, cougar, coyote and bear.

The thing that entertained me so much about this was the laissez faire attitude toward the rabbits. They are, after all, not valued pets, but simply a part of the food chain. This passage in particular cracked me up:

One year a bobcat came around; she took all but 11 rabbits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Later a big old black bear paid several visits, as ornery and crazy as he could be. Our dog, Teddy always let us know when he was around. He came once about 10pm and again at 4am for three nights in a row. He could smell the apples and vegetables in our utility room - and he was determined to get in. During this time he destroyed the hutches and slaughtered at least half of the rabbits. The other half got away. Mr. Bear returned again - and now he's the living room rug, but that's another story.

The whole story put me in mind of the domestic rabbits now multiplying fiercely in Seattle's Greenlake Park. These rabbits, with few or no natural predators, have become enough of a nuisance to warrant some sort of civic measures... but, because of the cute and cuddly factor, liberal hand wringers have roadblocked the obvious course of action. The last time I read about it, some of the bunnies were being humanely removed to a retirement park somewhere.

I like to think that Clark Resort's bunny story puts the Greenlake issue into perspective. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: Edible invasive species? Kill two birds with one stone and feed 'em to the homeless. Spoken as a 25-year vegetarian, no less. Let's at least be practical, people.