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Julian Ryall

A man has been arrested and charged with kicking a rabbit to death on Okunoshima, an island off the city of Hiroshima that has become internationally renowned as Japan’s “Rabbit Island”.
Investigators also believe he is behind the deaths of at least 77 more of the island’s rabbits over the last two months.
Riku Hotta, a 25-year-old office worker from Otsu City, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act for kicking the rabbit. The creature was subsequently pronounced dead.
Hotta was witnessed allegedly killing the rabbit by Takayuki Nakamura, a photographer who has been documenting the island’s rabbits for 25 years with his wife, Maroya.
“Since November of last year, there have been mysterious mass deaths among the rabbits of Okunoshima,” Nakamura wrote in an entry on the couple’s blog detailing the incident.
“There was a possibility that it was an infectious disease, but considering the circumstances, we thought it was probably caused by a person.”

On Tuesday, the bodies of seven rabbits were found on the island, including one that had two legs broken, and the Nakamuras were told by a colleague that a person who had been acting suspiciously was still on the island. Takayuki Nakamura trailed the man from a distance and used his telephoto lens to monitor his actions.
“I saw the man trying to lure a rabbit out with a carrot and then capture it, but at that moment some people walked by so he stopped what he was doing,” he wrote. About 5.30pm, however, he saw him approach and kick another rabbit.
Nakamura called the police and detained the man until the officers arrived. The suspect reportedly admitted to killing the rabbit, telling officers “there is no mistake” and hinting that he had also been responsible for the deaths of the other animals.
He also reportedly said, “While I think rabbits are cute, I was also curious about how they would react if I bullied them.”
“This incident has really broken our hearts,” the Nakamuras wrote on their blog.

The island is open to the public and a 15-minute ferry ride from the mainland in eastern Hiroshima prefecture. There are an estimated 1,000 rabbits on the island who often hop to greet new arrivals in the hopes of being fed.
There are two theories as to how the island became home to such a large population of rabbits. One is that they are the descendants of test rabbits that escaped from the Imperial Japanese Army’s secret chemical weapons plants that were built on the island in the 1920s. A museum on the island details the production and testing of mustard gas, tear gas and a range of other chemical weapons ahead of the outbreak of World War II.
The alternative theory for the bunnies’ proliferation is that a rabbit was adopted in 1963 as the island’s mascot in an attempt to attract more tourists. To further promote the destination, the manager of the first hotel on the island in 1971 invited children to release eight rabbits that have since multiplied.
The killing of the rabbits has led to an outpouring of anger on social media, with people demanding that more be done to protect the animals.
“This is an incomprehensible and unforgivable crime against a weak animal. I’m really angry,” read one comment on the Hiroshima TV website.
Another said, “People like this are likely to target humans next, so I hope he spends the rest of his life in a cage.”


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The man, charged with kicking a rabbit to death on Okunoshima, reportedly said he was curious how they would react to ‘bullying’


The man, charged with kicking a rabbit to death on Okunoshima, reportedly said he was curious how they would react to ‘bullying’.


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