Robben Island rabbits to be slaughtered despite protests

By Yamkela Xhaso
28 October

The recent rabbit population explosion in Robben Island has given authorities no choice but to decrease the numbers by slaughtering them.

This is according to the SPCA chief executive Allan Perrins, who said there have been huge protests and opposition to the activity but it is going ahead.

Perrins says there is no other solution to this crisis but to proceed and he assured that the slaughter will be as humane as possible.

SPCA CEO Allam Perrins says they wanted more time to solve the problem but the numbers were growing bigger rapidly.

“There are far too many rabbits in the island, a number of about twelve thousand rabbits and the numbers are still growing daily an thus the food sources are decreasing daily”

Perrins says that the food is dangerously approaching scarcity and if nothing is done the rabbits face extreme starvation.

“Despite protests by animal rights group at the Waterfront in the weekend, the culling will go on and initially it was thought we could curb the problem in two weeks however the process is going top take much longer than the two weeks which was thought to be adequade”