After a year of trying to get the rabbit population of the Boskruin Koppie under control, the Strawberry Foundation is ramping up their efforts to control this overpopulated colony.
According to the Strawberry Foundation’s Jenny Janse van Rensburg, the current rabbit population is sitting over the 500 mark.
On 28 July, the foundation and several volunteers helped to rescue and re-home 25 rabbits.
Janse van Rensburg said, “With the help of wonderful volunteers, we rescued 25 beautiful bunnies, who each deserve a loving, warm, safe home of their own.
“We had many people stop by to ask questions. Many even thanked us for caring and taking action.”
Last year, the foundation embarked on a campaign to help to control the rabbit population by capturing rabbits, and if they could not be re-homed, they would be sterilised thanks to the help of local vets.
Janse van Rensburg continued, “In the past year, we have had a lot of hassles. This includes people dumping more bunnies in the park, problematic access to the koppie, and the original housing complex where the problem started. The population is now spreading all over Boskruin.
“If we don’t help this colony now, the problem may be too far gone. We can’t sterilise and rehome only a few bunnies, we need to help as many as we can.
“We have been given the go ahead to remove all the bunnies and take them to a better location, but we don’t want to do that without engaging with the community and giving some education first. For bunnies that do stay, we will require a proper feeding programme for them.”
Janse van Rensburg said that this time around the organisation is working with the SPCA and volunteers veterinary clinics in the area.
“We are also engaging more with housing complexes in the area, going door to door and meeting with the community to inform them what we are doing. We have had many instances of altercation where people don’t understand what we are doing with the bunnies, thinking that we are harming or killing them. We need the public to understand that by sterilising or re-homing them, this is the most humane thing to help this colony,” she continued.
Janse van Rensburg added that the rabbits are domesticated, and even with numerous generations living in the wild, they do not revert back to their wild roots and rely on human interaction for food and water.
“As they are domesticated, their survival skills are low. They get snatched up quickly by predators, run over by cars, or harmed by people’s dogs when they take their dogs for a walk in the park,” she said.
Janse van Rensburg said that the project to sterilise and/or re-home the rabbit population will continue after further engagement has taken place with the community.
Details: The Strawberry Foundation strawberry1@jennynell-ot.co.za; 073 243 8161
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