Family Asks City Council’s Help in Saving Roger Rabbit
Roger Rabbit has been evicted, and his owners are hopping mad.
“It’s not fair,” said Kay Ortiz, owner of the six-pound rabbit. “He’s a friendly little guy, and he doesn’t bother anyone. He doesn’t smell or make noise, and he’s cleaner than a lot of humans.”
But the white-and-black bunny, named after the animated character in the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” does violate a Walnut ordinance designed to restrict the raising of “farm animals” on non-farming properties.
“The bottom line is they need 15,000 square feet (of property) to have a rabbit, and they don’t have it,” said Walnut Planning Director Roger Friesen. (Ortiz’s property covers about 10,000 square feet.) Friesen said his staff is investigating a possible appeal process that might allow an exception to be made in Roger’s case.
Ortiz, who said she was unaware of the zoning restriction when she and her husband, Rudy, bought their house in west Walnut in 1985, took her complaint to the City Council last week and received a sympathetic ear.
The council agreed to consider amending the ordinance if it’s determined that the rabbit cannot be exempted through an appeal.
However, the process of revising the law could span several months. “In the meantime, poor Roger has to be boarded out,” Ortiz said. Her children, Rudy, 10, and Michelle, 11, have other pets (two dogs and two parakeets), but they still miss their rabbit. “We all miss him, but it’s their pet,” she said. “The kids want their bunny home.”
Ortiz said the rabbit is being sheltered by a friend in an undisclosed city. He was whisked into exile about two weeks ago after a neighbor complained to animal control officers, Ortiz said.
The family adopted Roger Rabbit about four years ago after finding him wandering along the street. Since then he has lived in the Ortiz family’s garage, a mostly inconspicuous figure with a Garbo-esque personality. “He likes to be left alone,” Ortiz said.
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