Breed like rabbits, begone ye bunnies!

New Zealand, of all places, is the venue of a genocide-to-be — of rabbits. Last month, a Christchurch court ordered the removal ‘by whatever means necessary’ of some 400 rabbits. Killing cute rabbits is tough enough. Mass-killing cute rabbits must be supremely hard in a country that takes its quality of extra-human life also seriously. It all started in August 2014 when a couple bought four rabbits from a local pet store and failed to ‘Sanjay Gandhi’ them. The result: before one can say ‘Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill’, the four rabbits did what rabbits are famed to do — reproduce exponentially by a factor of about 3.5 a year when there are no natural predators. Now, there are 400 of them scurrying around damaging lawns, plants and properties. Things reportedly get quite ‘explosive’.

In the 1972 science fiction horror film, Night of the Lepus — based on Russell Braddon’s 1964 novel, The Year of the Angry Rabbit — there is an infestation of mutant rabbits. Yes, the ones still wrecking the Auckland countryside are not gigantic, man-eating rabbits. But costing over $50 million in lost agricultural production, and $25 million in pest control each year, they are a menace. So, as Daffy Duck would insist, ‘Wabbit season!’ — not ‘Duck season!’ as Bugs Bunny would say — in furry, faraway New Zealand.