An animal advocacy organization is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for targeting bunnies with blow darts in central Vancouver. Since November, Clark County Animal Protection and Control has responded to 10 reports of injured bunnies near Fourth Plain Boulevard south to Burton Road, and Andresen Road east to Northeast 98th Avenue. Several injured rabbits were found and euthanized due to their injuries, others may still be out there, according to a news release from the Animal Legal Defense Fund. The county agency has also located blow darts in yards, according to the news release. “Discharging blow darts in a residential area puts everyone in the community, including children, at risk in addition to the prolonged suffering these rabbits and birds are enduring,” Clark County Animal Protection and Control Manager William Oglesby said in the news release.

Oglesby said the incidents are occurring near heavily populated areas and schools. On Dec. 17, the agency responded to a house in the Ogden neighborhood to retrieve a bunny. A neighbor trapped the bunny after seeing it hopping around with a blow dart lodged in its rear end. The agency also received a report about a migratory woodpecker with a blow dart in its abdomen, according to the news release. “Crimes against animals proliferate alongside domestic violence, neglect of children and even gang activity,” Animal Legal Defense Fund Animal Cruelty Investigations Manager Linda Fielder said in an email. “That’s another reason we feel strongly about identifying who is responsible for these crimes.” The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Clark County Animal Protection and Control are working with law enforcement agencies to find those responsible for these incidents, the news release states. Recently, the two agencies partnered to provide training and resources — whether for animal control officers, veterinarians, law enforcement, prosecutors or others — to improve the county’s handling of animal cruelty cases.

“Washington’s animal cruelty laws prohibit the infliction of pain, injury or death on animals, and these recent reports of dead and seriously injured rabbits, left to suffer in these residential neighborhoods, is certainly a crime,” Fielder said in the news release. Contact Clark County Animal Protection and Control at animal@clark.wa.gov or 564-397-2488 to provide information related to these incidents.