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14.03.2024 - 12:49 / forbes.com
Some call it a war, others a capture operation or an exile effort. In any case, an excess of wild rabbits in Paris has convinced the authorities to lose them.
The ‘fluffy war’ is fought on two battlefronts: the first, against the animals, which are causing serious problems with hundred of tunnels dug underground, their insatiable appetite and subsequent droppings.
The second, on the human front as the manner of eliminating the problem (which began a while ago) has triggered conflict between local officials and activists from Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ) , the association that defends animal causes in Paris.
During the first skirmish in the ‘Rabbit War’ five years ago, PAZ “took the plight of the rabbits to court, and has continued to do so systematically each time the army has approached Parisian authorities for their help and authorization in evicting the intruders,” as explained by The Guardian.
In 2021, authorities formally classified the Parisian rabbits as “pests” but were forced to retract the designation following an outcry from animal groups arguing for a policy of peaceful cohabitation with the animals.
By removing the rabbits’ status as ‘damage-causing species (espèce susceptible d’occasionner des dégâts), they were repositioned in ‘group three’ along with pigeons and wild boar.
The conflict zone is clearly marked: Some 300 ‘lapins de Garenne’, a type of European rabbit, have been multiplying around the 40-acre, manicured emerald lawns of the Esplanade des Invalides, a site classified as an Historic Monument that houses the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb, under which the rabbits have found particularly desirable real estate.
And so, as the bunnies extended their underground network and peacefully frolicked on the green “pelouse” to the delight of tourists who, as described by Le Parisien, on sunny days love to capture the scene “by lying down in the grass to take a selfie with the pair of ears sticking out,” the French military of Operation Sentinel charged with overseeing the historic area and monument, have been much less amused — not least as they collect tons of bunny droppings every day.
And that’s not all. The animals are ruining the lawns and flora, their tunnels are extensive and they gnaw on the electrical cables and the pipes that water the premises.
According to the police, the bunnies overpopulation has led to degraded living conditions and health risks with “the mortality of rabbits and the bait they constitute for rats.” Per their calculations, restoring the site damaged by “the multiplication of underground galleries and the deterioration of the gardens, pipes, flora” will cost upwards of €400,000 .
Given the condition of the lawn above and the labyrinth below, and the
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