A rabbit has been lucky to escape across the Queensland border with his life after being seized by police seeking to enforce the state’s ban.
Officers from Springwood police station found the rabbit living in a cage inside a caravan after they were called to the address in relation to another incident.
Police said the owner tried to convince officers the animal was actually a guinea pig, but was unsuccessful.
It is illegal to possess a rabbit in the state of Queensland without proper authorisation because they are considered a risk to agriculture and native flora and fauna.
Kim Cooney of the Rabbit Rescue Sanctuary in neighbouring New South Wales, said she was contacted for help by the rabbit’s owner on Friday afternoon.
On Cooney’s advice, the rabbit – a male named Boo – was taken to the Animal Emergency Service in Springwood with written confirmation that he would be taken in by the sanctuary.
A vet set out on the four-hour drive to deliver him to the sanctuary in Grafton that night. “It was a lucky thing we had a compassionate vet,” said Cooney.
Cooney said the sanctuary had on Tuesday received a “substantial” donation from a friend of the sanctuary to cover the costs of keeping Boo.
Asked about the attempt to pass him off as a guinea pig, Cooney laughed. “He’s quite big for a guinea pig.”
Keeping rabbits, selling rabbits, releasing rabbits and introducing rabbits are offences under the Land Protection (Pest & Stock Route Management) Act 2002 with maximum penalties of $44,000 and six months’ imprisonment.
A permit to keep a domestic rabbit will be granted only if the animal is being kept for an approved purpose, “eg magic show and circuses” or “scientific and research purposes”.
Signs warning of the “rabbit keeping penalty” of $44,000 are placed at main border crossings leading into Queensland.
State legislation requires the humane disposal of any rabbits found in Queensland, which Cooney says allows for the animals to remain alive – though the typical procedure is for animals to be euthanised.
“When I get these alerts I need to act hard and fast because you’re always racing against the clock.”
Having lived in Queensland before she retired to NSW to set up the rabbit sanctuary just over eight years ago, she took the laws as a given.
“My concern is only the rabbit. I try to rescue every rabbit that is in trouble in custody, either in a council pound in Queensland or the police station.”
A spokesman for RSPCA Queensland told the ABC the association saw about one rabbit every two years: “It’s very rare ... It’s fairly well-publicised that rabbits aren’t allowed in Queensland.”
Neither the Darling Downs–Moreton Rabbit Board which maintains Queensland’s rabbit-proof fence or police were available to comment.
