SEATTLE – A rabbit roundup is planned next month at Seattle’s Woodland and Green Lake parks. The aim is to relocate the growing rabbit population, which is digging holes and tunnels that damage trees and fields.

The population is believed to peak at about 500 in the summer, when people abandon their pets to let them run free. Many of the domesticated bunnies are killed by predators.

The city Parks Department plans to trap the rabbits, sterilize them and then send them to Rabbit Meadows Sanctuary in suburban Redmond.

The rabbits will be captured this winter, when their population is at its lowest because of natural attrition. A Nov. 30 census turned up just 18 rabbits, though others may have been hiding.

Associated Press

Visiting couple find missing support dog

A couple visiting Seattle over the holidays have been reunited with their missing 41/2 -pound Yorkshire terrier Gatsby, a certified emotional support animal.

The dog has helped Bruce and Sharon Gallagher from Rifle, Colo., cope with the death of their college-age son, Cheyne, in a traffic accident two years ago. Bruce Gallagher said they’d been distraught since the dog got out of the yard on Christmas Eve while they were visiting another son in north Seattle. While they were at a movie downtown, Gatsby went through a doggy door into the yard – and then apparently slipped out under the fence.

However, KING TV reported late Monday night that the dog was found on Christmas Eve by someone who didn’t know who the terrier belonged to because his tags were too worn to read. That person saw TV reports about the missing dog and, by Monday night, Gatsby was reunited with the delighted Gallaghers.

Associated Press

Longview: Columbia River dredging ending

A dredge will finish pumping sand from the Columbia River onto Port of Vancouver property by next week, finishing the first phase of a multiyear project to deepen the shipping channel, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“After 15 years just to start dredging, it’s almost like a dream to hear they finished deepening more than 25 percent of the channel in less than a year,” said Ken O’Hollaren, Longview port director.

Lower Columbia ports pushed for deepening the channel from 40 to 43 feet so that large ships can load to full capacity. Environmental groups opposed disturbing the riverbed and stockpiling the sand onshore, and have been fighting the project in federal court.

Four western governors – Washington’s Christine Gregoire, Oregon’s Ted Kulongoski, Idaho’s Dirk Kempthorne and Montana’s Brian Schweitzer – signed a Dec. 2 letter to the Bush administration, asking that the president include $40 million for dredging in his 2007 fiscal year budget request to Congress.

Associated Press

Spanaway: Son arrested in parents’ shooting

A 24-year-old man has been arrested for investigation of murder in the shooting deaths of his parents, a Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman said Monday.

Lee Soo-il, 62, and Lee Keum-yim, 60, were found dead on Christmas Day in their home in this community south of Tacoma.

Dispatchers received a 911 call at 5:30 p.m. Sunday from a person who had found the bodies, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The son was arrested Monday at a house near Rainier, Troyer said, adding officers also seized the vehicle the man was driving.

Associated Press

Alaska: Number of bears killed ties record

A record-tying number of bears – 21 – were killed this year in Anchorage.

Most of the bear deaths were the result of people leaving out trash and other edibles, wildlife biologists said.

The high number of nuisance bear deaths occurred despite another aggressive campaign by state biologists and wildlife groups and citations handed out to people who chronically leave their trash available to wildlife.

Associated Press