Notorious Brooklyn Bunny Hoarder Found Guilty of Animal Cruelty

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A nearly two-year crusade by local bunny activists to bring to justice the neighborhood's most notorious bunny collector, 36-year-old Polish music teacher Dorota Trec, finally came to a close Monday, when prosecutors with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office reportedly found her guilty of 100 counts of animal cruelty.

A group of a dozen activists beamed in Brooklyn criminal court as the jury's forewoman (aka, spokeswoman) read off each "guilty" verdict, one by one, 100 times — one time for each animal the jury believed had suffered while living in Trec's bunny colony behind Mexico Tire Shop at 466 3rd Ave. in Gowanus.

Another 25 of Trec's bunnies were reportedly found not to have suffered on the lot. The suffering of one final bunny, though, could not be determined, reports said, as it had died during trial from causes that could not necessarily be traced back to Trec.

The bunny colony living on the vacant lot on 3rd Avenue was famously raided by the NYPD and the ASPCA in January 2015, at the onset of an incoming blizzard that authorities feared would harm the animals.

According to the New York Times, ASPCA vets found that more than two-thirds of the hoard had "wounds, mostly from bites"; around half had contracted syphilis; nearly three dozen were showing signs of "genital or anal trauma"; and others were suffering from "abscesses and skin inflammations associated with being kept in unclean environments."

Trec has maintained throughout the whole ordeal, though, that the bunnies in her hoard — which she has since replaced with 90 more — are wild, strong, happy and free, and that any duress they've suffered has been at the hands of their supposed rescuers.

She's currently trying to sue a long list of prosecutors, police, nonprofits and activists for $2.8 billion.

In the Big Apple Bunnies Facebook group — run by Trec's arch nemesis, Natalie Reeves — trial watchers cheered when the 100 verdicts came down Monday. "For animals that too rarely get the same respect as dogs and cats, this is a promising development," Reeves wrote.

"Right on. Waffles is glad to hear it," a commenter wrote beneath Reeves' post, attaching a photo of a white bunny.

Trec will be sentenced on Jan. 13, 2017, court records show. She reportedly faces up to two years in prison.

Pictured at top: Rodney the bunny — or one of his parents, hard to say — was rescued from Trec's squalid lot in January 2015, according to the ASPCA.