Alaskan community hopping with rabbits

SCRIPPS HOWARD
VALDEZ, Alaska -- Maybe it's Easter every day in Valdez. Maybe it's some kind of Peter Rabbit tale come to life. There's a bunny boom in this small town best known as the end point of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Dozens of domesticated rabbits are hopping around this summer, delighting European tourists, annoying local gardeners and provoking the town's animal control officer.
In the Bear Paw Tent Campground, for instance, it's rabbits galore.
"Tiny ones, big ones, they're all over the place," says Stefan Muller, a 25-year-old traveler from Switzerland cooking his supper on a gas stove. "It's amazing. I hope they don't get in my tent and start eating."
Shana Anderson, the town's animal control officer, says the community rabbits have been around for years, but they're especially abundant this summer. She's a little worried about it.
"It's rabbits out of control," she says. "I'm really serious. It's something I'm looking into doing something about."
Just where the rabbits came from is a matter of considerable folklore among the locals. Some say a former RV park operator on the spit, across the harbor from downtown, allowed a breeding pair to proliferate several years ago.
The population jumps and crashes, they say, as predators including lynx and bald eagles come into town and make meals of the rabbits.