Rabbit Shot With Blow Dart In Arlington Caught, Sent To Wildlife Center For Care

ARLINGTON, VA — Animal control officers caught one of the two rabbits that was shot with a blow dart along North Barton Street in Arlington, according to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington.

A resident called animal control about seeing the rabbit. When animal control officers arrived Tuesday morning, they caught the rabbit with a net. The dart had dislodged itself while the rabbit was in the net set up to humanely trap the rabbits, AWLA said.

The rabbit was taken to the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in Boyce later on Tuesday for care. "They are not sure of his prognosis yet since they found a pretty bad infection, but they are doing their best," AWLA spokeswoman Chelsea Jones said Wednesday.

Early last week, AWLA's Animal Control Department began receiving calls from residents who saw two rabbits in the 700 and 800 blocks of North Barton Street with what appeared to be blow darts stuck in their bodies.

Animal control officers then set up humane traps on different properties in an attempt to catch the rabbits.

AWLA is asking the public to call animal control immediately at 703-931-9241 if they see the other rabbit shot with a blow dart.

"This behavior will not be tolerated here in Arlington. This is an act of animal cruelty," Jennifer Toussaint, chief of animal control for Arlington County, said in a statement Monday.

Toussaint said AWLA and other animal welfare groups “put so much time and emphasis on teaching tolerance and harmonious coexistence with local wildlife in an effort to prevent acts such as this.”

"When groups, associations, or organizations teach intolerance for living things or scapegoat animals for human created conflicts, our wildlife pays the price," she said.

AWLA said this is the second time in the past 12 months that the welfare league has discovered the use of projectiles or blow darts on wildlife. About a year ago, a crow was shot and critically injured by a dart shot from a blowgun in the Fairlington neighborhood.

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