A Canadian Rocky Mountain town is surveying residents on whether a ballooning rabbit population that's chewing and burrowing its way through gardens and lawns should be rounded up and euthanized.

Canmore, Alberta, just outside the gate of Banff National Park, has found itself inundated with rabbits, and dealing with property damage, years after domesticated animals were set free in the picturesque community, Mayor Ron Casey said on Monday. "They've been populating one area of town for likely 20 years or more, but the numbers have increased over the last four or five years for a variety of reasons, so now they've spread out a little wider," Casey said.

One likely reason is fewer predators like coyotes are wandering into Canmore due the booming population of humans lured by high-priced mountain vacation properties, he said. Casey said he could not confirm media reports pegging bunny numbers at more than 1,000.

"I know I can look out the front door of my house virtually any time and see four to six rabbits." The town is asking its 11,500 residents to fill out questionnaires so it can find out how many support a rabbit crackdown amid a flood of complaints to town hall.

"But it's also a love-hate thing -- this is not a common viewpoint among everybody," Casey said. "I would say, if anything, what we saw last year is almost a 50-50 split between people who said, 'Hey, leave them alone -- who cares?' and those who said, 'You've got to do something about them'." Results from the survey are expected in about one month.
(Planet Ark, 07/03/2007)