I enjoyed reading your article on the rabbit disease in the April 17 Island’s Weekly. I read a similar article while recently in Victoria. I live in Lopez Village, and my garden is overrun with rabbits.

I wanted to refer you to another article that ran about the same time in the Victoria Times Colonist on Tuesday, April 10, page A4. It was titled “Contraceptive vaccine planned for Oak Bay deer” by Cindy E. Harnett.

Oak Bay is a neighborhood east of Victoria overrun with deer. The city radio-collared 20 does in March and now plan to administer a contraceptive vaccine, Zonastat-D, as early as August. Steve Huxter, project manager of the nonprofit Victoria-based Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society (UWSS) will oversee the project. About 40 deer are found dead in Oak Bay each year, mostly hit by vehicles or entangled or impaled on fences.

A cull in Oak Bay in 2015 saw 11 deer killed in two weeks, but it created a rift in the community and sparked protest from the British Columbia SPCA and animal-rights activists. The drug is only effective for 12 to 22 months and is said not to be harmful to a human or predator if the deer were consumed.

Nancy McCoy

Lopez Island