If you decide to read the articles, I would appreciate your insight on the issue of rabbit extermination in Australia...essentially, what, if anything, do you think of the Australian approach?

The rabbits, which for the remained of this diatribe I will refer to as bunnies, being released in Australia is our fault, man's, please note for the remained of this soliloquy I will refer to myself as the sole perpetrator of all the ills of society, aqua sea foam shame. Anyway, I just wasn't thinking, but I rarely do. Sometimes things work out, like with with mold and the dead bacteria, and sometimes they don't, like with the bunnies. Sorry, but its too late. I have, much like I have in Afganistan, created an enemy, formidable. The process does not matter however, we do not live in the past. Bam! I order you to the present, to our present problems and situations, the blame game is over. Guess what, nobody cares, excuses are meaningless. What your mom just died? Well that's too fucking bad. I was born a cripple, so there, does that top it. Who has the best excuse.....I do I do... I wanted to hunt bunnies....that's it....oh yeah...and I was picked on in grade school....that's good enough for me...so anyway, I'm at war now....Me vs. them....I'll issue the bunnies a letter of apology but they are going to choke on the meaninglessness of words, on their poison kibbles. If someone kills 1 rabbit by accident and 24 come back dressed up like chimpanzee's and they come over while yo' dead momma ain't home, and break a jar...will you eat the glass as a penance? All is fair in love and war. I dine on bunny head today. -steve

I'm not sure you addressed the issues. You certainly described one of them, though. I might interpret what you wrote as condemning those who "blame" humans for the effects of introducing exotic species into various environments - "the process does not matter." So, the Australian approach is okay by you? The moral issues are left untouched in your response. I really hoped people would touch on the moral issues. - Cory

There is foul language...if you don't like it...don't read it.Bunnies...killing bunnies? wtf? Just because they overpopulate an area means we have to destroy them...does this same idiotic principle apply to humans? I mean we have what a fewer than 7 billion people occupying a tiny globe we call Earth. Can we exterminate all the stupid people that occupy Earth, as we know it? The ecosystem is in trouble. The Earth is in a so called "global warming" stage because of us, but no no we have to kill all the enormous bunnies because we humans fucked up and let bunnies go wild. OF COURSE they are going to replicate like the bubonic plague uncontrolled. Just get them under control within "fair reason" and perhaps we should take example on how to do so with our overpopulation of this Earth.. .:Kris:.

My inclination is that controlling the bunny population is probably okay insofar as it can be done without extermination (individually or collectively), without causing suffering, and is necessary to prevent harms caused by their introduction into the environment. - Cory

The rabbits in Australia create an interesting problem. The environmentalist in me wants to see the natural balance of the ecosystem restored, which means the bunnies have to go. The animal lover in me doesn’t want to see them treated poorly. I have heard before that people (I’m not sure of their position anymore) would round up a bunch of rabbits on a fence either by horses or helicopters and set them all on fire. Methods like that and introducing viruses into the population are too cruel for my standards. I don’t have an answer on what to do about them. I don’t think introducing a predator would be a good idea. It would just upset the ecosystem more. I liked Sarah Mae’s idea about introducing bunny birth control. I think it would help. They could set it out like they do the poison. It wouldn’t harm the rabbits and it would help slow the population. I like the idea of using the giant rabbits for food in poor countries. The rabbits breed fast (60 babies a year) and have a good amount of meat on them. But they would have to be careful that the giant rabbits didn’t get lose because then they would face the same type of problem as Australia. - Jess

This was the sort of synthesis I was hoping for, though there seems to be an inconsistency in two of your statements (I'll let you guess to what I'm referring). - Cory

I have reviewed a variety of the articles that Cory generously linked for us about the rabbit overpopulation problem in Australia. I was somewhat familiar with the issues before hand as I watch a great deal of public television and have seen a number of programs on the subject as a result. It is a difficult dilemma to be sure. I, like Cory, am an animal lover. I have always had a special affinity for them. However, I understand the issues in regard to the wild rabbits in Australia and although it is a difficult thing for an animal lover to say, they do need to be eradicated. Not unlike the invasive non-native snakes in Guam the rabbits in Australia are responsible for the extinction of a number of native species that were vital to the ecology of the continent. It is a complex issue and I wouldn't presume to know how to solve it as I am not a wildlife biologist but, somehow, the rabbits need to be removed. Since they reproduce so rapidly perhaps rendering them sterile would be a better option, although I realize it would have to be done on too wide a scale to be done physically. Perhaps a chemical could be introduced to the population that would cause sterility or render them non-productive (a kind of bunny birth-control) until the population could be removed. Regardless, I don't think that using disease to control them is an answer. It endangers the humans who are exposed to it as well as native populations of animals. All in all, there is no simple solution - or perhaps there is and we just need to encourage scientists to look outside the box. - Sarah Mae

Assumption one (a common one at that): if an environment is modified by humans it is, by definition, destructive (with one exception - a change that renders an environment closer to a previous state of wilderness; closer to a perceived pristine state). Does this follow? - Cory

Am I an animal lover? - Cory

Reading Cory's articles, I am confused. I really don't like this paragraph on Wikipedia "Rabbits are also responsible for serious erosion problems as they eat native plants which would have retained soil. Some of this erosion may also be the result of settlers clearing much of Australia's land for farming and housing." It seems to me that they feel that Rabbits are the first to blame for the erosion problems and people are a secondary cause. Hmmmm...I don't buy it...but then I really don't know anything about erosion and the causes...just it is hard to wrap my mind around the notion that rabbits are the main cause of the "serious erosion problems." I just am thinking about how, this "problem" was caused by humans and yet the rabbits are blamed…yeah...the rabbits decided to go and cause this "infestation"...sure...Now to the uses. I read on BBC about the Koreans wanting to buy the giant rabbit and find a way of breeding them in order to supplement their diets. I think that this is an ideal solution. I know I sound horrible. I am a meat eater, however, and I think that perhaps the 15 pounds of meat from one rabbit is 15 pounds of meat that could save a person who is on the brink. This said...I just can't help but wonder what will happen in 10 years when the rabbits are reproducing faster than people are eating them. Just think, if Korea begins to have "Rabbit infestation" issues perhaps food will become cheap and then nobody would starve to death. - Hend

I don't know, but it certainly tastes good with some K.C. Masterpiece BBQ sauce! .:Kris:.

Australia is apparently a big producer of free range meat... fyi. - KevinRb

I've got a giant rabbit living in my apartment. We named him Gigantor (Gigi for short, although there have been several offshoots derived from the nickname, namely Gigster and Gigi Puff. Someone called him Gigi Boo once, and I'm sure you can see how that might be problematic - Cory