Boy's pet rabbit beheaded by elderly neighbor

[Robb]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/93651994.html">Boy's pet rabbit beheaded by elderly neighbor

(snip)

And despite a big fence in the way, roam they did into Billie Jean and George Lehman's yard. The rabbits ate the Lehmans' zucchini, dug up their green beans, peed on their lawn.

"They had to go," said Billie Jean Lehman. "I chased those rabbits with that net around this yard until I'm black and blue all over."

Billie Jean Lehman called animal control. Her husband built a vegetable cover.

Then a few days before Mother's Day, Billie Jean Lehman chased down two rabbits, cornered them and dispatched them.

"How do you nicely say an older woman brutally murdered my 4-year-old's pets? Is there a nice way to say, 'Our bunnies are missing?' Well, they are not missing; we know what happened to them, unfortunately," said Dalaena Andersen.

Read more: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/93651994.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I won't defend beheading

But why was the rabbit allowed in the neighbor's yard?

[peace13]

2. Sad fro the little boy but...

if his pets really did get out multiple times then his parents are idiots. If your child is attached to an animal then you better make sure the thing is safe. Poor Bunny!

[MajorChode]

38. I love my pets, so I keep them at home

How hard can it possibly be to keep a rabbit confined?

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. silly rabbits!

WTF? Must be country folks involved. I doubt many city people have the stomach to lop off the heads of live rabbits.

[ashling]

22. Excuse me!? Excuse me!? That is kind of a

moronic thing to say. Are there no serial killers from the city? What the hell is up with that?

Oh, I know, it must be their country roots.

:crazy:

[Vinnie From Indy]

29. Sure there are serial killers in the city...

they moved in from the country. The lengths you have gone to be outraged are mildly amusing. What is truly hilarious is your equating the more common experience of counrty folk living on farms dispatching livestock and such with serial killers in cities. In short, lighten up Francis!

[BreweryYardRat]

4. As usual, malevolence and stupidity go together like flies and shit.

At least one of the 4-year-old's bunnies is an awfully odd-looking rabbit. Not at all easily mistaken for a regular one. But since Mrs. Lehman is cruel enough to chase down critters and chop their heads off rather than just buying a varmint gun and plugging them, it's not terribly surprising that she's also stupid enough not to wonder why there's such an obviously non-standard rabbit running around.

Sheesh. I'd go sue her ass for the value of the unique rabbit, and ask for an extra thousand or two in punitive damages. Just to teach her to check around for an exotic animal's owners before playing mad butcher.

Mind you, I don't blame her for going after the councilman's escaped rabbits, but it looks like this critter had the bad luck to get loose once in the worst possible place at the worst possible time.

P.S. Robb, you might want to change your choice of quotes. As usual, people aren't reading the article and making wrong conclusions.

[AllentownJake]

7. Animal comes onto her property

eats her garden, she dispatches said animal. Other than a fine for hunting out of season or without a license, I hardly see a legal case.

[BreweryYardRat]

11. Erm...Did you take a close look at the article?

It sounds like the kid's rabbit might have just gotten loose once, but that "once" was the worst possible time.

Here, I'll quote it:
Jim Mankin made a mistake a couple of years ago. He bought two rabbits.

As a former city council member, Mankin knows owners are supposed to keep rabbits penned. But with 20 or more, that's not easy. The rabbits dig, and they roam.

Then a few days before Mother's Day, Billie Jean Lehman chased down two rabbits, cornered them and dispatched them.

One of the dead bunnies didn't belong to the former councilman. Mufasa was a special lionhead bunny that belonged to 4-year-old Cohen Andersen, who lives down the street.

Cohen Andersen's mother says a mistake led to Mufasa getting loose, but he didn't deserve the death penalty.

[AllentownJake]

18. Don't know

I'm guessing this was not the first time the elderly neighbor was plagued with bunnies with 20 of them on the neighbors yard.

[FSogol]

28. Would your position change if she killed a pet dog in her yard?

:shrug:

[AllentownJake]

30. Was the dog fucking with her garden?

I think a dog is different than a rabbit. However, at the end of the day, if the officials are notified of a nuisance and a family does not take precautions to avoid the nuisance in the future and there are no consequences, people will do what they do.

[FSogol]

33. Dogs and domestic rabbits are both pets. No difference. n/t

[AllentownJake]

34. Legally

Probably not. There is probably an ordinance or a law against killing dogs on your property.

Also, I can't go to the farmers market and get Dog meat in this country.

If there is a law against dispatching rabbits on your property, than the woman has an issue. I doubt there is a law.

That being said, if your pet is destroying your neighbors property, you can't act shocked when a neighbor retaliates.

[AllentownJake]

5. Sounds like a case of bad neighbors

Animal control should have taken the animals away or fined the family if they were unwilling to control their pets.

[madmax]

9. Sounds like a nasty old lady

who forgot what it was like to be a kid. :(

[AllentownJake]

14. Appears to me a case of irresponsible parents

Who were not teaching said kid the responsibility of being a good neighbor.

[madmax]

19. True

She should have beheaded the parents :silly:

[AllentownJake]

21. Forgive me

I'm PA dutch, I prefer live traps, but this is something my late Grandmother would do, and not think twice about.

[madmax]

31. As a child my Mom took me to

a poultry supplier. He also sold rabbits. Mom chose a rabbit the owner took the rabbit to the back, came back with rabbit wrapped in white butcher paper. Have never been able to eat rabbit.

I was traumatized, I tell you. Traumatized! :rofl:

[AllentownJake]

32. yeah

I still eat pig stomach and get a half a steer and a full pig a year from a cousin, knowing full well where it is coming from, and not caring.

Probably have met my steer or pig at the 4th of July party.

[Arkansas Granny]

36. It could be an old lady who considers rabbits to be a meat producing animal,

not a pet. When I was a kid, we raised rabbits for food and they were considered livestock. I never heard of someone keeping one for a pet until just recently.

[Art_from_Ark]

37. Here in Japan, elementary schools often have pet rabbits

I don't think there are too many people here who would think of eating one.

[Vickers]

6. bad pet owners + pissed off neighbor = sad outcome n/t

[get the red out]

8. Why not take them to the humane society?

Why did they have to kill the animals? Why couldn't they have simply taken them to the humane society where the owners would have had to pay a fine to get them back, and hopefully learn a lesson about keeping their pets under control? The killing seems extreme and done to get even to me, rather than just animal control.

[MattBaggins]

10. Hasenpfeffer

I sure hope she put them bunnies to good use.

[AllentownJake]

15. Very tasty. nt

[Peacetrain]

12. We raised rabbits for 4-H when my son was in it.. and the last thing you do

is let rabbits run wild.. because they will pick up diseases that do them in from wild rabbits among other things. Eating lettuce from the garden can kill a rabbit.. (Don't believe what you see in cartoons) soooooo

So I am not defending the beheading of a pet.. Rabbits make lovely pets if you know how to take care of them.. they even litter box train..

But the parents are ultimately responsible for the wlefare of that rabbit... a four year old cannot be expected to see to their needs.

This is probably a neighbor squabble that just was looking for an excuse to go ballistic.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. and history will repeat

the kid has a new pet rabbit, who was outside in a woodpile.

Let the pet run wild, it will probably meet an unfortunate end, just like the first one.

:wtf:

[Hubert Flottz]

16. You'll have that...

Was the kid's neighbor Dick Cheney?

[TwilightGardener]

17. Cruel. It wasn't the rabbits' fault--there was no need to kill them. Does this

nasty dingbat kill every wild bunny, squirrel, etc. that goes into her yard?

[AllentownJake]

20. I have live traps for my Garden

Said bunny would end up at the wildlife sanctuary, only because it is safer to eat the bunnies from the Farmers market, and I try to eat something if I kill it on purpose, other than bugs or mice.

[madmax]

23. You have a heart, Jake

:hug: I'm pro-rabbit ;)

[AllentownJake]

25. I'm neither pro or anti rabbit

I'm pro lettuce I take time to grow, and not happy with varmits eating it. They will be dispatched to the Poole wildlife sanctuary from the suburbs post haste if they become a nuissaince. Probably safer for them anyway no cars..but than there are foxes and hawks out there. Circle of Life.

[TwilightGardener]

26. Never had the need to kill an animal, except for mice and bugs in the home, which

are a health hazard. I will never understand why some people feel they have a right to kill everything that inconveniences them. I've had rabbits, voles, moles, squirrels, bats, swallows, raccoons, possum, deer all conduct their business around my house and garden at some point, and I can manage just fine without slaughtering them--they're just trying to live and feed their babies, same as me.

[AllentownJake]

27. Rabbit is quite tasty

If I kill one, I know how to field dress it and make some excellent dishes.

Venison is one of my faves.

[Hubert Flottz]

24. Gawd prolly told the perp to attack all rabbits on sight.

Next week the perp will prolly attack all small children instead.



"RUN AWAY!"

[Arkansas Granny]

35. First of all, the rabbit owners are not being very responsible if they allow the

animals to breed uncontrolled (and rabbits can get out of control very quickly) and they don't keep them properly penned. Then, you consider the neighbor who is watching her garden being eaten by these animals. If she had already called animal control, chased them around the yard with nets and built covers for the veggies, I think it's fair to assume that this was not a one time event.

I don't necessarily approve of beheading the rabbits, but I can certainly see why the woman felt that she was justified in doing so to protect her garden, especially if it was an ongoing problem. A live trap would have been more humane.

[Generic Other]

39. Saw her destroyed garden patch on the local news

Perfect rows of lettuce totally destroyed. The usual Peter Rabbit/Farmer Green activity.

This is a largely rural area with a residential rabbit population explosion. The news said both the rabbit owner and the killer were in violation of local ordinances.

The kid got a new bunny he found by the woodpile.

Strange this story made national news.

[ZombieHorde]

40. I killed a mouse in my house. I still feel a bit guilty about it, but killing a rabbit in one's yard

is not much different.