unwanted rabbit

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Glenn McCullough

Glenn McCullough

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
Messages
4,130
Location
Grosse Pointe Woods, mi, USA
I live in a subdivision and there is a rabbit that has taken up residence nearby, my guess is under someones bay or deck. This thing is driving my dogs nuts as it is always wandering through the yard and they sit at the doorwall alllllll day long waiting to get at it.
I cant shoot the doggone thing, though the thought crossed my mind. I would if i werent in a sub.
The funny thing is, there is a large woods/wetlands 2 blocks away!?
Any suggestions on how to trap it and take it away?
 
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A sure fire way to trap a rabbit is to use an upside down box proped up with a stick. Hide in the bushes, tie a string to the stick and use a carrot to bait the rabbit under the box. When he goes for the carrot pull the string.......
I saw a wise man do it when I was younger every saterday morning, Elmer Fudd was his name.......
 
I am with Rob on the live traps. You can buy an inexpensive trap at a pet store or get a rental (try the humane society or local shelter, they sometimes rent for a nominal fee).

Get on the internet and look at ways to "camo" the trap. I have caught many wild animals in these traps and you can then take it far away and release it without harm.

If you call animal control, they are sometimes bound to put the animals down, and they are not always good at checking traps very often - thus you end up with an animal that starves or dies of thirst. I have seen it.

Other than that, find you a big outside cat and let him prowl your yard. The rabitts will leave.

Good luck.
 
If you are a good shot (head shot only) you could do it with a pellet gun. Only problem is if some bleeding-heart sees you and reports it, you would probably be in some hot water.

I would call call the city animal control and let them deal with it.........get some value for all of the property taxes you have to pay.
 
I have a 1/2 acre back yard and my dog nails rabbits occasionally.

While this is a neat and tidy (and natural) method of pest control, it costs me a bit for the inevitable worm medication: Every rabbit he's caught has had the last laugh and given him intestines full of spaghetti....

Cheers!

Gary
 
penhead said:
the animal control in our area will allow us to 'borrow' traps, they even deliver and pick up. Problem is they take the animal, too.

If you just want to relocate the animal, try Harbor Freigt for a few dollars:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94397
Click to expand...

Borrow the trap from animal control, when the animal is trapped, take it to the woods, put the trap back for a day or two and call animal control that the animal is gone and never went into the trap..

Is a white lie really a lie????
 
before I opened this thread, my first thought was just shoot it, but you threw that out the window :).

If it were me, I would either let the dogs get it, or watch its patterns for a few days. See where it goes in and out of, like a hole in a fence or something? Maybe where it goes under the deck? Make a snare trap and catch the little bugger. You can find information on setting up snare traps on the internet. Then you can have it for dinner. Heck, even feed some of that stew to the dogs just to shut em up lol.
 
45 years and 65 pounds ago I used to chase them down and catch them by hand. They are fast but after 10-15 minutes they slow down a lot. I haven't tried it lately, but I'm pretty sure I'm not that fast anymore.
 
Keep in mind that come April or May you will very probably be dealing with a dozen rabbits, not just one; at least until the Hawks and cars thin them out a bit. I had a similar problem when I bought a house out in the county. It came with a semi-domesticated Beagle that ran rabbits around the house all night, every night. The dog would be baying all the way and his bark would fade away for about 20 seconds as the rabbit ran around the house and then the bark got louder again as he passed the open window. I swear that the rabbits tag-teamed that dog where one rabbit would dodge into the woods and another "fresh" one would take his place. It took me almost a month, but I finally caught the dog and took it to animal control. I vote for trapping the rabbit and relocating it to the proper area.

Jim Smith
 
I like rabbits yes I do Boiled, Broiled or in a Stew.
I vote for giving your dogs a bit of exercise, if you have a fenced yard, Think how good your dogs will feel after vanquishing this horrid creature, I hate rabbits, they wreck my garden every year, and fences don't stop the little buggers, but my cat gets the smaller ones.
 
Here is my related story and advice.
I had a raccoon try to get into my kitchen, it was actually trying to tear the screen out of my back door with two mid size dogs right in it face. it did not care about the dogs. I think they where what it had in mind to try and eat.
Anyway I called animal control, they told me to call fish and game.
Basically I could trap it any way I wanted and dispose of it in any way that did not violate any laws.
Laws concerning this issue.
1. it is illegal to transport or relocate the Racoon.
2. it is illegal to discharge a firearm in city limits (which is where I would be trapping it).
I have a ditch full of water that runs along the back side of my property. I asked the guy if I live trapped it then through the trap and all into the water was there a problem with that. He said no. I could even sell the skin. Note there is no season on raccoons here so they can be trapped or hunted at any time.

So my advice is to contact fish and game. find out if there is a season for hunting rabbit, otherwise it will be illegal to "Take" a rabbit in any way.
otherwise I suggest a trap that will kill it unless you want to have to do it yourself. I honestly suspect it will be illegal for you to relocate it. this causes problems more often than not and in ways you could not even imagine. Wild animals live where they are living for reasons we do not even know about.

By the way I rid myself of my raccoon by doing what someone suggested above. I opened the door the next time I saw it. evidently it's eyesight had gotten better and it was no longer so anxious to meet my dogs. it now lives across the fence in the ditch. it still drives my dogs mad but for me it is entertaining.
 
I personally would use a .308 boattail 168 grain and deny it ever happened.There shouldn't be anything left to use for evidence, but like I said, that is just me. A simple snare is silent and provides a nice meal.
 
Daniel said:
Here is my related story and advice.
I had a raccoon try to get into my kitchen, it was actually trying to tear the screen out of my back door with two mid size dogs right in it face. it did not care about the dogs. I think they where what it had in mind to try and eat.

By the way I rid myself of my raccoon by doing what someone suggested above. I opened the door the next time I saw it. evidently it's eyesight had gotten better and it was no longer so anxious to meet my dogs. it now lives across the fence in the ditch. it still drives my dogs mad but for me it is entertaining.
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You want to be careful letting your dogs go after a raccoon... unless they are born and bred hunting dogs that know how, the raccoon would probably whip one or both of them pretty quickly. My dad used to hunt raccoons with his dogs. One night he and a cousin treed a boar raccoon. When they jumped the 'coon out of the tree and let the dogs get to him, he whipped 3 dogs to a stand still.... he only lost when dad's old Black & tan finally decided to get into the fight... Dad said he made one pass at the 'coon to stand him up, then took his throat out. The other 3 dogs were pretty badly cut up.
 
Hey oobak I have an idea. Let's use that rabbit as one of the Bash Prizes! Go ahead and trap that little critter .... then donate him to the Bash for one of the Daily Trivia Prizes. Somebody's gonna be making some rabbit stew!
 
6 small onions, chopped
1 bay leaf
½ cup chopped celery
2 tsp. salt
2 cups diced carrots
3 raw potatoes, cut up
3 tbs. flour
1 tbs. chopped parsley

Clean rabbit and soak in salted water. Drain, disjoint it in pieces for serving and place in a large kettle with onions, bay leaf, celery and salt. Cover with cold water and cook slowly until tender, about two hours. Add chopped carrots and potatoes and continue cooking until these vegetables are done. Smooth flour with a little cold water and add slowly. When thickened, add chopped parsley and serve.:eat:
 
I would look for a live trap. They are pretty cheap. I have never tried to trap a rabbit so I don't know if this tip applies, but if you use a piece of solid bait, in the case of the raccoon it was a old slab of meat, use a zip tie to keep the bait attached to the base. I watched a raccoon sneak into the trap very lightly, carefully pick up the meat, and walk out, the next night I zip tied the bait and as soon as he started to struggle with the meat the doors dropped. That raccoon never killed any of our chickens again.

You could always use a pellet gun... If you do, get some practice first and hit it in the head. You don't want to wound an animal, even an unwanted rabbit. Obviously if you do this it will be a good idea to do it when no one is out and about, or as little people may see as possible.

Good luck.
 
texasfootball21 said:
.

You could always use a pellet gun... If you do, get some practice first and hit it in the head. You don't want to wound an animal, even an unwanted rabbit. Obviously if you do this it will be a good idea to do it when no one is out and about, or as little people may see as possible.

Good luck.
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Everytime I try to hit something in the head with a pellet gun, I wind up breaking the stock on their head.:biggrin:
 
The RABBIT needs two things (yes two, it's a family site)----Food and Shelter....you can't really take away the food so you need to take way the shelter. Find where it is hiding and see if you can take that away....if not, I am certain you can get away with one shot as long as no one sees you! I like mine grilled w/ lots of onions please.
 
No need for traps here. In the two years we live now in NJ, our Schnitzel (wire haired dachshund) caught three rabbits and killed two - from the third she just got to keep the tail...
She also got a crow, and in Michigan she caught and killed two black birds that were teasing her. She is normally the sweetest, cuddling dog when she is in bed with us, but let her in the yard and she start to sniff and track those critters. Our new addition Woofgang der Wunderhund is going the same route - rabbits watch out!!
 
This might help ...

Rabbits don't like blood. It is common practice for people with gardens to use blood based fertilizer ... It feeds the plants and gets rid of the rabbits.
 
Just let the dogs out and the rabbits will disappear. We have lots of rabbits here in Nevada amongst the sage brush but none are in our neighbors yards who have dogs! The rabbits just stay away once they are chased a few times. I have many here in my yard but I just leave them alone - they really aren't bothering me at all. We have lots of hawks and coyotes too so they tend to keep the rabbit population in check locally.

Of course, my grandkids love to watch them when come visit.
 
Hey, don't dismiss the Elmer Fudd method! I cought a squirrel once that way, just for fun. I used a peanut butter sandwich though, and a wire basket with a weight instead of a box.

If I where you, I'd tell the wife you've got some serious pest control business to take care of. Take a day off work, get a sixpack, or a twelve maybe (if it's a smart rabbit), a comfy chair, some snacks, and set out my trap. It may take a day or two.

I also got a squirrel with a bow one time, throught the head, twitched ONCE, no more. The rat with the blowgun didn't go so well though...
 
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Please don't be mean to the poor bunny, He is just trying to survive like everyone else. He (or she) may have several hundred offspring that would be very upset if anything happened. I am already starting to feel for the poor thing, maybe you can catch it and send it to me to be given a good home. I have a large stainless steel cage with a lid ready for it. I will put in some carrots and some celery along with some water and maybe a bit of white wine for it. If it would like, I can throw in a bit of seasoning to keep the cage smelling fresh, and the best part is it can stay on my stove to keep warm. I am a true animal lover, in fact I am having some cow over for dinner tonight.
 
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