In 1891, California passed a bounty on coyotes at five dollars each. During that decade, in the Lassen region, that bounty was nearly successful in eradicating the coyote population. In turn, that created another problem—jack rabbits. These critters flourished, since the coyote was its primary predator. For the farmers the jack rabbits created more problems than the coyotes.
In 1920, the residents of the Madeline Plains requested aid from their Congressman John E. Raker, to help them with the jack rabbit problem. A study sent to Raker reported: “As son as the crops are up and making good progress the rabbits begin work on them. The heaviest damage is done in August. One rancher reported losing 100 acres of wheat last summer. They take this crop in preference to oats and rye. It was reported that 70 tons of rabbit meat [to make tamales] had been shipped to the San Francisco market. It appears that the animals cannot be killed fast enough in this region to furnish relief to the ranches.”
One method deployed to eradicate the rabbits—were rabbit drives. As the name infers volunteers were either clubs or guns would work a large swath of area killing thousands of rabbits. Rabbit drives in the region were common during the 1920s and 1930s. Even after the coyote bounty law repealed it took years before a balance in nature was corrected.
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