Park rabbits to be fixed and farmed out

"Oooooh! I'll get those scwewy wabbits if it's the wast thing I do!"

Elmer Fudd can welax. The Seattle parks department is doing the work for him.

A rabbit round-up is planned for next month at Woodland and Green Lake parks to relocate a rabbit population that, while cute as heck, is wreaking havoc on park property by digging holes and tunnels that damage trees and fields. The population, believed to peak at about 500 in the summer, likely got its genesis when someone abandoned their pets to let them run free. But the species is domesticated and therefore ill-suited for the wild. Sadly, many of the bunnies meet their maker after meeting a predator.

The parks department, with the blessing and assistance of several animal-rights groups, plans to trap the rabbits, sterilize them and then send them to Rabbit Meadows Sanctuary in rural Redmond where they will live out their little lives.

For park visitors, however, that means the family-fun tradition of watching and feeding the park bunnies is coming to an end.

The rabbits have congregated primarily in two spots — at a rockery within Woodland Park and at a field near Green Lake's hike-and-bike trail. But they also have migrated to the Woodland Park Zoo and the ballfields in lower Woodland Park.

The rabbits will be captured in the winter, when their population is at its lowest because of natural attrition. A census on Nov. 30 located a mere 18 rabbits, although others likely were hiding.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com