This may be the Easter season, but it’s hardly the best of times for bunny rabbits at one south Orange County homeowners association.
The Mission Viejo City Council has given permission for one gated community to have rabbits shot on sight.
Many residents in the Casta del Sol HOA retirement community, frustrated for years by the abundance of rabbits gnawing on native shrubs and plants and doing their bunny business on their lawns, want to thin the ranks. They want an exterminator with a pellet gun to take aim at the unwanted wildlife in the wee hours of the morning.
“It’s a quality-of-life issue,” said one City Councilman. “They’re a pest. We really weren’t left with a whole lot of options. We have tried trapping, so we’ve kind of gone to our last resort.” The association reported that in a recent informal poll, nearly 90% of residents were in favor of shooting bunnies to protect their landscaped lawns. The timing of Casta del Sol’s victory, so close to Easter, was coincidental.
To read more on this story from the Los Angeles Times, see the attached PDF article.Download oc_hoa_has_rabbits_in_its_sights.pdf