A common English rabbit forages on a lawn at RAF Mildenhall. Around 250 such rabbits are shot on the base annually to keep populations low. (Ben Murray / S&S)
A common English rabbit forages on a lawn at RAF Mildenhall. Around 250 such rabbits are shot on the base annually to keep populations low. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Sean Wagg, the rabbit and mole control specialist at RAF Lakenhath, checks a mole trap located in the middle of mounds of “mole damage,” the piles of soil the animals push to the surface with their digging. (Ben Murray / S&S)
A common mole, killed by a trap left in one of its tunnels, is held by Sean Wagg, the rabbit and mole control specialist at RAF Lakenhath. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Sean Wagg, the rabbit and mole control specialist at RAF Lakenheath, kneels with his dogs and the air rifle he uses to hunt rabbits on the base. (Ben Murray / S&S)
On its own, the common English rabbit is a tiny, skittish, harmless animal, prone to snacking on manicured grass and lounging in flower beds.
Around U.S. bases in the United Kingdom, it is a common sight: a bolt of gray and white dashing under a hedge, a brownish blob on an open lawn at dusk.
A rabbit is no problem. Rabbits, in the plural, are. Particularly at U.S. bases in the U.K., where officials say they have to be controlled to prevent damage to soil around buildings, runways and sensitive equipment.
As a burrowing animal, rabbits carve warrens and tunnels in the dirt around munitions and fuel depots, destabilizing the protective soil. They scratch ditches under perimeter fences and disturb carefully manicured gardens, says Sean Wagg, a pest removal specialist at RAFs Lakenheath and Feltwell.
For those reasons and more, burrowing animals — namely rabbits and moles — are regularly killed at U.S. bases to keep their populations at manageable levels. It’s a practice that goes mostly unnoticed by base residents, but one in which hundreds of rabbits and scores of moles are killed annually by English contractors hired by the Ministry of Defence.
Hunted at night or trapped in their tunnels, the animals have been quietly removed for years in a process base officials and game wardens like Wagg know must be handled sensitively.
Bunnies, everyone knows, are cute and fuzzy — they are an “emotive” animal, in Wagg’s words — and shooting them can appear callous. But they also are almost universally regarded as pests in England, even among animal-rights supporters, because their numbers can soar under the right conditions.
Wild rabbits, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, are considered vermin in England that landowners (via an act of parliament) are obligated to “destroy,” to keep populations in check.
Wagg doesn’t take rabbit control on base quite that far. His goal is not eradication, he said.
“We’re not here to kill everything that moves,” he said. “The idea is to keep things under manageable control.”
Wagg uses a straightforward method: Once a month or so, he grabs a friend, his two dogs, Chudley and Eve, and a high-powered air rifle and drives onto the base. Arriving at about 10 p.m., he shoots an average of 100 rabbits in about seven hours.
To shoot one, he drives to within about 25 yards of the rabbit, takes aim through a scope from inside the vehicle and fires a single, standard pellet. He aims for the head, and the shot generally kills the rabbits instantly, he said.
On RAF Mildenhall, the same method is used but the toll is lower, said Paul Grace, a manager for Defense Estates, the MOD division that helps manage the Royal Air Force bases. Only about 250 rabbits a year are shot there, he said.
It may sound a little cold, but base officials claim it’s the most humane way they have to control the population.
In the past, people tried to control rabbits by pumping poisonous gas into their warrens or by using ferrets to flush them out or hunt them underground, said Tim Grogan, the Lakenheath landscape manager for Defense Estates. Neither method is as effective or humane as simply shooting them, he said.
But according to some, shooting rabbits is a pointless venture that only harms animals without making significant dents in their numbers.
“Shooting rabbits is a complete and utter waste of time in terms of population control,” said John Bryant, an independent wildlife consultant who specializes in humane solutions to animal problems. “I would love to know what the instant kill rate is.”
Bryant said that the only truly humane way to control rabbits on bases is to keep them from getting in by using buried netting and extra fencing — options Wagg said won’t work at a place like RAF Lakenheath. The place is just too big and there are too many gates and chinks in the fence to keep them out, he said.
Shooting, Wagg said, keeps the rabbit population on base manageable. He believes he has it down to several hundred rabbits.
Wagg said he knows his job can appear cruel to those unfamiliar with animal control, but he relies on 25 years of experience with wildlife to keep from being too sentimental about it.
“You’ve got to understand nature and appreciate nature to control it,” Wagg said.
He also puts the carcasses to use, he said, by selling some to local butchers, feeding others to animals and by eating some himself.
Despite his efforts, Wagg admits, in the end rabbits will outlast people at the U.K. bases.
“There’ll be rabbits on Lakenheath airfield long after we’ve shuffled off,” he said.
