[Abandoned pet rabbits have plagued an overpass in Victoria for several years. Photo courtesy: Laurie Gaines]



A veterinarian is working hard to raise awareness for rabbits that are being abandoned at an overpass in Victoria, a city that has had its share of bunny troubles.

Laurie Gaines hopes a fundraiser at a comedy club on Thursday will bring in enough donations to pay for the new life the 100 animals have received since being rescued by volunteers.

For five years, the Helmcken Road overpass, which runs between the highway and the exit ramp, has been an unsanctioned area where people abandon pet rabbits they no longer want.

Gaines has been co-ordinating the organization of the rescue of the rabbits for the last four years. It wasn’t until February, however, when she received a permit from the B.C. forest ministry that allowed the animals to physically be rescued. Since then, volunteers have retrieved 100 rabbits from the overpass.

“These rabbits are pets,” Gaines tells Yahoo Canada News. “I believe they deserve to be rescued like dogs and cats. Their lives matter.”

A professional trapper, who is hired by the provincial transportation ministry, humanely captures the rabbits with fox traps and food as bait. They’re then taken to one of the many vets, technicians and assistants who have volunteered their services to neuter or spay the animals, as well as deworm and give them a tattoo or microchip. Once they’re recovered, the rabbits are sent to a sanctuary.

The SPCA has donated a grant for the efforts, but Gaines has started a Go Fund Me page, as well as organized this week’s fundraiser.

Victoria has been overrun with rabbits before. For years, the University of Victoria dealt with an abundance of campus rabbits. While the school originally planned to euthanize many of them in 2010, it granted an animal rights activist permission to relocate 1,000 of the creatures to a sanctuary in Texas. By 2011, UVic declared the campus rabbit-free.



Despite all these endeavours by Gaines and volunteers, rabbits are still being left at the overpass. Gaines says at least 20 have been dropped off since the start of the summer.

The transportation ministry will soon take steps to discourage further pet abandonment. The government intends to install signs that forbid rabbit drop-offs and will soon set up security cameras to monitor the area. Crews are also set to repair areas around the overpass that have been damaged by the rabbits, including sidewalks, embankments? and landscaping.

In a release, the B.C. government says it may be “forced to consider other solutions, which may include euthanization for any new rabbits found at the Helmcken interchange.”

Gaines says she’ll do what she can to stop it from getting to that.

“Our short-term goals is to save all these rabbits and give them a good life at the sanctuary,” she says. “Our long-term goal is to work with the government on changing the schedule fee designation so that in the future, if people want to save rabbits, it’s an easier process.”