Case Report

Asia Grey's back yard full of round, furry bunnies was a regular source of distraction for a neighbor boy who she said killed two of them. Police said Wednesday the boy was cited and must appear in court to face a felony animal abuse charge.

Grey said the 13-year-old foster child, who has lived with a family in an adjacent house since he was 5, showed no remorse when she spotted him in her yard Tuesday holding clumps of the clay and tar she claims he used to stone the rabbits to death.

Grey said it wasn't the first time the boy had stalked the 13 rabbits and two guinea pigs she considers family pets, all of them spayed or neutered and trained to use litter boxes inside the house.

On Wednesday, 1-inch nails and broken glass � which Grey said the boy used to pelt the rabbits from over the fence � littered her large, muddy yard.

The boy had been told to stay out of the yard a few years ago, not long after Grey and her family moved into the house on 58th Avenue in North Oakland, she said.

Grey said she would see him in the yard chasing the rabbits and told him to stay out.

But high winds Monday blew down a portion of the wooden fence separating the two yards.

Grey lives on a double lotlined with open rabbit cages and pens for the free-roaming bunnies.

Grey said she noticed the boy in her yard Tuesday afternoon from her son's bedroom window.

"My initial reaction was he was throwing them," she said.

When she ran outside, she found two of her pets � Irving and Benito � dead under her back stairs. A third rabbit, Fiona, was injured.

Grey said the bunnies were friendly and social and were probably injured before they knew enough to run away from the attacks.

The boy only looked over his shoulder at her with a "totally bored, glossy" expression and walked away, while she broke down crying, Grey said.

"He didn't seem like he cared."

Irving, 7, a pink-eyed, 15-pound white New Zealand rabbit, was the patriarch of the bunch, said Grey, who rescued the "gentle giant" from an Alameda animal shelter three years ago. Benito, 8, another rescue, was enjoying his senior years with the warren.

"He was taken in and loved," said Grey, a member of the rescue group House Rabbit Society. She acknowledged her husband doesn't quite share her love of bunnies but has learned to live with it. Her son and daughter loved the rabbits and are devastated by their deaths, she said.

The boy's foster grandfather offered Grey money for the rabbits on the spot, she said. But she rejected the offer, instead getting a police restraining order prohibiting the boy from his own back yard while he awaits a court appearance.

"It's not about money," said Grey.

She said the boy should be held accountable for his actions. Law enforcement officials have long linked animal abuse to other forms of violence.

"I want people to understand that it's not OK to hurt animals," she said.

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