Eight rabbits have been euthanized after at least 10 were penetrated by blow darts in a Vancouver neighborhood in incidents dating back to November.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), a legal advocacy organization for animals, is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible after rabbits were found around Vancouver with blow darts embedded in them.
“Washington’s animal cruelty laws prohibit the infliction of pain, injury or death on animals, and these recent reports of dead and seriously injured rabbits, left to suffer in these residential neighborhoods, is certainly a crime,” said ALDF Animal Cruelty Investigations Manager Linda Fielder in a news release. “We are hopeful that members of the community are able to come forward with information that will lead to justice for these animals and prevent similar actions in the future.”
Clark County Animal Protection and Control has responded to 10 reports of injured rabbits in the vicinity of Fourth Plain Boulevard south to Burton Road and Andresen Road east to Northeast 98th Avenue in Vancouver. The agency has also received information that a migratory woodpecker with a blow dart embedded in its abdomen was seen at a feeder in the area, the release stated. While Clark County Animal Protection and Control officers were able to locate several injured rabbits that were later euthanized due to the extent of their injuries, others evaded capture and might still be in the area. Animal control officers are also finding blow darts in area yards, the release added.
“We don’t know if these people are on foot, if they’re darting the rabbits from a car. We don’t know if they’re coming to the area,” Linda Fielder told The Reflector. “But I would say just to be on the lookout for any unusual people or behavior from people in the area, people driving very slowly, people that you don’t expect to see in your area, that type of thing.”
Fielder added that she believes there is a risk to people’s pets not just in the direct vicinity of the incidents but across the county as no one has been caught to date. Fielder said the blow darts travel at a fast enough projectile rate that they lodge into the animal or can go through them. She added that animals with a lodged blow dart have a tough time moving around, bleed a lot and could have damaged organs.
“So if you have cats that are free roaming, you might consider keeping them inside or keeping animals close to you because it seems to me the rabbits that are being targeted are kind of community rabbits,” she said. “They live like feral cats where they’re domesticated species but they have learned to live independently in these neighborhoods and reproduce in these neighborhoods. So they’re not necessarily anyone’s pets, but they are domesticated.”
ALDF is currently working with Clark County Animal Protection and Control, as well as law enforcement agencies in Clark County, after the county was chosen to participate in ALDF’s Collaborative Response Project, a year-long grant project that supplies funds, equipment, training and consultation to entities tasked with enforcing state animal cruelty laws.
“Discharging blow darts in a residential area puts everyone in the community, including children, at risk in addition to the prolonged suffering these rabbits and birds are enduring,” said Clark County Animal Protection and Control Manager William Oglesby in the news release. “These incidents are occurring in heavily populated areas and near schools. We are hoping to identify the person or persons responsible before more harm is done in our community. The county is committed to bringing this individual to justice. We urge anyone with information to please contact Clark County Animal Protection and Control at animal@clark.wa.gov or 564-397-2488. If you have any doorbell or other camera video you can share showing someone using a blow dart gun in the area, it can be emailed to us.”
