Bunnies be Gone???

Two summers ago, our front yard was ravaged by bunnies. And I mean ravaged. The following spring we had to get about $300 worth of re-sodding done - yikes! So this year, when I started to see that tell-tale rabbit poop and the beginning of some bare patches, I declared war. No more standing by while they eat our entire yard.

I had heard that fox urine was a deterrant so I headed to our "local hunting store", which is actually the a store the size of several football fields all dedicated to fishing, hunting and boating. They actually have an entire row of animal urine - whouldathunkit?! And, let me tell you, this row *stinks*, particularly to the sensitive nose of a pregnant lady. Hunters use these products to mask their own human scent, apparently despite warnings on the bottle that they may be attacked by things such as mountain lions. Obviously the hope with putting it on one's yard is to make the bunnies think there is a fox that wants to eat them.

There were two choices - a predator "bomb" that you set off one time that emits an aerosol spray, or concentrated pee that comes in a tiny spray bottle. The bomb seemed the obvious choice to me, but the sales guy convinced me otherwise. I guess I had pictured in my head trying to coat my entire lawn in fox pee, which would require roughly 592 bottles of this stuff. But all that is required, apparently, is to mark your trees and a few of the areas where the bunnies have been. Repeat once a week, and eventually they will think a fox lives in your yard.... at least supposedly. I have done one application. Hopefully fox urine is safe for pregnant people! So far I have not seen more bare patches so fingers crossed.

The disturbing part of all this was the result of my internet investigation after my mom asked how they collect the urine. She (and I) were picturing foxes peeing in cups on demand. Alas, this is not the case. I found one site that tells the "steps" to collect it, and the first step is "kill a fox." So, generally speaking, fox urine is a by-product of fur farming. Other internet sites talk about the animals being caged and the urine collected and the environment didn't really sound too great. Now I'm not some huge animal rights activist or anything, but I know that fur farming can be a pretty dirty business and most of the animals are not being raised for food- just for vanity products like furs, and apparently for hunting products. It seems that perhaps I should just man-up and trap/humanely kill the bunnies, rather than use the product of another animal that was killed, possibly in a very unpleasant way, for me to chase off the bunnies.

So the fox urine has been purchased and I might as well use it up... but I may have to re-think some other strategies if the bunnies continue to show up. I wasn't expecting this to become a personal ethical dilemma!