It's Florida, Man. (2024) s01e05 Episode Script
Bunnies
1
NARRATOR: What you're about
to see may be dangerous,
illegal, unethical,
petty, misguided, immoral,
and most definitely stupid.
But it's also all true.
Sort of.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MONICA MITCHELL:
We went to the community.
We go early in the morning,
around, like, 6:30.
Hi.
Some residents are very hostile.
One lady, she was approaching us
and she was carrying a gun.
She was screaming,
"Get off of my property!"
Get off my property!
She said, "If you come here,
I'll shoot you."
I will shoot you!
MONICA:
My volunteers, they were afraid.
They were fearing
for their lives there.
We're just gonna get our things,
and we're gonna get out
of your hair.
We're just gonna grab these.
-(ENGINE REVVING)
-(TIRES SCREECHING)
There was one resident,
opened the car
and they have a machine gun.
(GUN CLICKS)
He said, "I don't want you guys
taking the bunnies!"
I don't want you guys
taking those bunnies!
MONICA: He said,
"Those bunnies are mine."
Those bunnies are mine!
(MUSIC DISTORTING) ♪
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(BIRDS CAWING)
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA GRIGGS:
So, this is Jenada Isle.
It's an island, so there's
only one entrance in and out.
This is a great neighborhood.
There's 81 homes
and everybody knows everybody.
I'm Alicia Griggs and I live
in Jenada Isle in Wilton Manors
and I've lived in
the neighborhood for 39 years,
since 1984.
This is the house
where the woman lived
that left the rabbits
in the street.
A couple of years ago,
one of the neighbors
had a lot of rabbits.
Hi. (CHUCKLES)
She wasn't
a very responsible pet owner.
I'm not
a very responsible pet owner.
I'm an absolute sociopath.
ALICIA: When she moved,
she just left
all the extra rabbits
in the street
to fend for themselves.
I'm leaving you
to fend for yourself.
ALICIA: And they've multiplied
because they weren't fixed,
and they just continued
to multiply.
REPORTER: They were first
spotted a couple years back
when one neighbor
left them behind.
I think she had three rabbits
and she let them out.
Three months ago, we had
110 rabbits all over the place.
ALICIA:
They can reproduce every 30 days
and they can have one
to 12 bunnies every single time.
I just was pushing constantly
to try and get the rabbits
to be rescued and rehomed.
And I was calling everybody,
trying to see
if anybody could help do it.
And nobody would do it,
so I called this person, Kim.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA:
She is a wealthy socialite
that has a sanctuary
for rabbits.
Welcome to my home.
It is Marion Sims Wyeth,
the architect of Mar-a-Lago.
My name is Kim Renk.
I am
a proud animal rescue person.
There have been times
when all eight bedrooms
and nine bathrooms of this house
have been filled with bunnies
that I've rescued.
ALICIA: She knows
a lot of wealthy people,
and she likes to be
the center of attention,
has a lot of contacts,
so she can get things done.
Since the time
I can remember thinking,
I have been obsessed
with rabbits.
Literally,
since I was three years old,
I think my first thoughts
were rabbits.
You're precious.
You're precious.
I love grass, too.
We can smell the grass together.
(SNIFFS)
KIM RENK: Come on, babies.
Come on, bunny.
Banana treat. Banana.
Banana treat.
Rabbits wake up
at about four o'clock
and they're nocturnal,
so this is their sleepy time.
This is the time
that they lounge on the veranda
and enjoy life in Palm Beach.
There's two more here somewhere.
Um, this is the master.
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Well, welcome.
You can see
Wolfman Jack and Shorty
lounging on the bed
in the lap of luxury.
INTERVIEWER:
KIM: Wherever they want.
My husband's rabbit
sleeps in bed with us
every single night.
And I wish my husband
would be here,
but he, uh, sadly,
is in the investment world
and didn't think
this would bode well for him
because his little rabbit Shorty
sleeps in bed
with him every night.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
KIM:
So, one day, Alicia called me,
and she explained
the horrible situation
going on here.
I immediately
jumped into action.
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: So, I dialed Monica.
I thought she could help.
Hey, Honey Bunny. This is
Honey-- Okay, Honey Bunny.
This is Honey Bunny.
My name is Monica Mitchell.
My rescue,
East Coast Rabbit Rescue.
There's only few rabbit rescues,
and there are so many needs.
At one point, I had over
a hundred bunnies at once.
This is
Bun-New York City room,
and I call this
the Bun-hattan. (CHUCKLES)
You have the Bunstro,
the Bun Statue.
I always put the B-U-N,
like "bunny,"
like the Bunklyn--
Bunklyn Bridge,
'cause you go
from Manhattan to Bunklyn,
like Brooklyn,
but Bunklyn, yeah.
This is my own rescue.
I started working
with rabbits back in 2012.
INTERVIEWER:
My pocket.
Most of the, you know,
the funding comes
from my savings.
You know, I sold everything
I had back in Brazil
and kind of started
to the rescue.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Monica said
she didn't have enough money,
and I said,
"I can get the money."
I can get the money.
"Show me the money."
Tom Cruise in
whatever that movie was
where he's dancing
in his underwear
in front of the fireplace.
"Show me the money."
Let's get the money.
So, of course, the first thing
I thought of was,
"How do you get the money?"
You have some sort
of an outreach.
My publicist, Lisa Bitner, said,
"I'll get the Associated Press."
TERRY SPENCER:
I'm Terry Spencer.
I'm the Broward-Palm Beach
correspondent
for the Associated Press.
I got a call from a publicist,
and she said that
there was this rabbit
infestation in a neighborhood.
So I started checking it out,
and it turned out
to be a pretty good story.
KIM: It went viral.
Poof! Like a match
to some dried newspapers.
REPORTER: Dozens of bunnies
are taking over
a neighborhood in Wilton Manors.
These rabbits
are overrunning everything,
and now a group
is trying to rescue them
rather than exterminate them.
KIM: Everywhere you went,
you heard the story.
And the money
just kept coming in,
and I'm not saying it's enough,
but it was enough to get them
to go out and help the animals.
There were these rescue groups
that said,
"Okay, we'll come in."
Okay. We'll come in.
"And we'll get the rabbits."
And we'll get the rabbits.
(SCREECHING)
KIM: But sadly,
to every good side of a story,
there's the yin and yang.
You've been talking
to residents.
What are
they telling you, Julia?
Mixed emotions over this,
certainly, Sheli.
There were some people
who got quite angry.
They thought that the rabbits
were going to be killed.
They didn't want
the rabbits to go away.
And so it became
very much a divide.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOE JONES:
When the rescue teams came out,
it was complete turmoil
on the island.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NEIGHBOR:
It seemed like a free-for-all.
There was really
no organization.
All of a sudden,
there would be one group.
(DISTORTED SHOUTS)
-NEIGHBOR:
Then there's another group.
-(GROWLING)
They were running all over
each other's properties.
People that came
acted like vigilantes.
They came onto the property
and started hitting stuff
and trampling things,
and breaking stuff.
(GRUNTS)
(YELLS)
"Oh, there's bunny babies
in here."
There are bunny babies in here!
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
-It was a nightmare.
(YELLS)
I've never seen anything like it
in my life.
And I've traveled
the world extensively
on business and otherwise.
-Oh, là, là, chérie.
-(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER: Not everyone is glad
to see them go.
They're an asset.
They're lovely.
They make everybody smile.
REPORTER: Joe Jones said
he wants the bunnies
in his yard to stick around.
I found one two and a half
years ago in my pool
and saved the little thing,
and sort of got hooked on 'em.
My name is Joe Jones.
I've lived on this island
in this house for 33 years.
Let's see, how do you do that?
We respect each other's privacy
out here, and I like that.
Except that woman,
that troublemaker up there,
she caused a lot of problems.
Joseph Jones
got a really big house.
He doesn't use all the rooms,
so he can take the rabbits in
if he wanted to,
but he just likes
to keep them in the yard
because he thinks
they're delightful.
They're delightful.
The children love to see them.
I'm not worried about
their health in the least
because I've never seen
any health issues.
No fleas, no ticks,
no malnutrition.
They seem extremely healthy
and well rested.
Most of the residents,
they said the bunnies are fine.
But just because you see
a bunny hopping around
doesn't mean that he's healthy.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: These rabbits are like
little miniature poodles.
They have personalities.
They're called lionhead rabbits.
They're small and furry,
and they were bred
to be extremely domestic
and extremely friendly
to humans.
(LOUD WHIRRING)
DYLAN:
They are pet rabbits
that have no clue
what they're doing outside.
They don't know not
to cross the street.
They get hit by cars.
They get hit by golf carts.
All of their fear
has been bred out of them.
They're sitting ducks for dogs
that get let loose off leash
-(HAWK SCREECHING)
-or hawks, eagles,
other hungry birds
that come down
and grab them.
MONICA: We rescued 44 bunnies
from that community.
Every single one,
they had medical issues.
Mange, ear mites, fleas.
They're supposed
to be eating hay all day
or else their teeth continue
to grow and they can't even eat.
If the bunny doesn't eat
in six to eight hours, they die.
If they are
not brushed regularly,
they start to have
their hair ball.
They die.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHRIS CAPUTO: Ultimately,
what happened, right,
is it's blowing up.
It's literally, again,
we have residents that
are threatening other residents.
So we threw a town hall.
Hey, good evening. Gary Blocker,
chief of your Wilton Manors
Police Department.
Uh, yesterday,
you were provided a,
hopefully, an extensive menu--
not a menu, uh, memo.
(CROWD LAUGHING)
Rabbit stew, rabbit steak.
They all laughed about it.
The rabbits were on the menu.
Like he joked about eating them.
Hopefully, you've had
an opportunity to digest that.
We're really looking here to
-(CROWD LAUGHING)
-(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
You know, keep in mind that
if the trappers
do trap the rabbits,
and they have no place
to put them,
that they're going
to be euthanized.
I don't know what the answer is
besides that, though.
Right.
I watched the commission meeting
and it said that
they would be euthanized.
The best word is a British word
called "gobsmacked."
I was gobsmacked.
The town was going
to euthanize them
in a really inhumane way.
The thought that somebody would
inject antifreeze to kill them
was unthinkable to me.
Chris Caputo, I think,
is the commissioner,
he expressed a desire
for a mass extermination
before the problem
got out of hand.
This isn't Germany.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I became a villain
because there's this belief
that there was
bunny genocides in place.
But some sound bites get
a little bit out of hand, right?
And then everyone
just makes an assumption
about what's happening
without asking for any facts.
It didn't look so good
that he was in favor
of euthanizing
all these rabbits.
And Chris Caputo suddenly, poof,
had a change of heart.
ALICIA:
So the city was allowed
to spend up to 30,000 dollars
to get rid of the problem.
Isn't that interesting?
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA: So I pushed the city
to use Monica
so that we could get
something going
to rescue the bunnies.
(GASPS)
(IN DISTORTED VOICE)
Those bunnies are mine!
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
-Just get the fuck out of here!
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Get out of here!
Get the fuck out of here!
My volunteers,
they don't want to stay there.
"DYLAN": Go, go, go, go!
We had some residents
taking pictures
of our license plates
and of our faces.
-"DYLAN": You gotta drive!
-(SCREAMS)
MONICA: I think
the residents thought
that we were the exterminators,
not that we were the rescuers.
(GUNSHOT ECHOING)
I would like to say,
are you kidding me?
Shame on me.
I stood back for two months,
thinking other people
were going to solve it.
But they didn't.
-So I came here to do a rescue.
-(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I realized this was
a scary place,
a dangerous place.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM:
I call it the Twilight Zone.
Have you ever seen
The Twilight Zone?
It's an old series,
but a really phenomenal series.
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM:
Many of the people approached me
and they did not want anyone
in their neighborhood,
even though
they're public streets.
I was not prepared
for the anger of the residents.
Stop!
It was a very scary atmosphere.
It was nighttime.
I was in my Jeep,
following the vigilante groups.
Stop.
JOE: A lady came to my Jeep
and banged
on my driver's window.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
JOE: She screamed profanities.
I am screaming profanities.
She was crazy and she was drunk
and she was terrible.
I am crazy, I am drunk,
and I'm terrible.
She said, "Get your pit bull
out of your backseat."
(PANTS, GROWLING)
And I said, "That's not
a pit bull, that's a neighbor."
(SCOFFS) Mm-hmm.
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
-KIM: I had a truckload
full of middle-aged men that
looked like giant potatoes
(LAUGHS) that approached
and said, "Where do you live?"
Where do you live?
KIM: That's always
the question you get
when you go
to Wilton Manors.
It should be a T-shirt.
"Where do you live?"
Question mark.
Where do you live?
RESIDENTS: Where do you live?
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
(VOICES DISTORTING)
Where do you live?
-Where do you live?
-Where do you live?
Somebody asked her
if she lived in the neighborhood
and she said no,
she lives in a 20-million-dollar
house in Palm Beach.
She was leaning
on the person's car.
(SQUEAKS)
ALICIA: And I think he might
have told her to get off the car
or pushed her or something.
(GASPS)
(GROANING EXAGGERATEDLY)
(GROANS DISTORTING)
And my life was threatened,
and I called the police.
So she called the police
and tried to make a report,
but they didn't
show up for 45 minutes,
so she got upset.
Took them quite a while
to arrive, to be quite honest.
-(INSECTS CHIRPING)
-(SIGHS)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: This can't go on here.
It can't go on
that there's fear.
Fear has to be eradicated
in this life.
There's no reason
that residents who live here
are in fear
of helping the rabbits.
Alicia Griggs is in fear.
That's why
she's in her house right now.
She's afraid of her neighbors.
I don't blame her.
My life was threatened
on these very streets.
We live in
the United States of America,
and we're on public property
on the street,
and all I can say
is no one should live in fear.
It's wrong. It's wrong.
-It's wrong.
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
There was
a follow-up meeting on Zoom,
and it was supposed to be
for the neighbors
who wanted to keep the bunnies
around in their yards.
All right, good evening,
Wilton Manors community.
Jenada Isle.
Thank everybody
for being here tonight.
Nobody really showed up,
so it was a waste of time.
Right now,
we do have about five attendees.
Um, yes, is it
a little disappointing
we didn't get more than five?
Yes, I'll be very candid
with you.
Gary Blocker, again, he's just
a puppet of the organization,
but he sent an email stating
that nothing else was happening.
And he said
in that email that he
"hoped the rabbits that were
remaining wouldn't procreate."
How could no one do nothing?
And I know that
it's improper grammar,
but it applies
in this situation.
-(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-That was the last thing
that we heard from Jenada.
We could not reach
our goal, you know?
I threw the football to them.
They didn't do the job.
Now we have to do more.
For what reason God
has called me to help,
I don't know.
But I'm asking him to call
somebody else next time.
If nothing's done,
the problem will continue,
and the population will be
bigger and bigger
and bigger and bigger.
JOE: It's history.
Turn the page.
Close the chapter.
That the whole situation is,
in my opinion, taken care of.
But I will continue to do
whatever I can to make it right,
to save all those rabbits,
to make a difference,
to have the story be told
across the United States
of America.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
Please, let justice be served.
-(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-Just another mimosa morning ♪
Golden hour
At the start of day ♪
We're going tonight. And we're
gonna get some of those rabbits.
I have my professional trapper
with no teeth.
I hope he won't feel offended
when I say that.
But he's amazing.
And we're gonna
get more rabbits.
And we're gonna solve it.
Did you guys want a drink?
-Or anything?
-(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
Waters, like there's vodka.
I am not crazy, I am not drunk,
and I'm not terrible.
Just another mimosa morning ♪
Crack of dawn
And picture light ♪
Champagne bubbles
In my orange juice ♪
Sleepy bones on ♪
You and I got to lose ♪
(SONG CONTINUES) ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
NARRATOR: What you're about
to see may be dangerous,
illegal, unethical,
petty, misguided, immoral,
and most definitely stupid.
But it's also all true.
Sort of.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MONICA MITCHELL:
We went to the community.
We go early in the morning,
around, like, 6:30.
Hi.
Some residents are very hostile.
One lady, she was approaching us
and she was carrying a gun.
She was screaming,
"Get off of my property!"
Get off my property!
She said, "If you come here,
I'll shoot you."
I will shoot you!
MONICA:
My volunteers, they were afraid.
They were fearing
for their lives there.
We're just gonna get our things,
and we're gonna get out
of your hair.
We're just gonna grab these.
-(ENGINE REVVING)
-(TIRES SCREECHING)
There was one resident,
opened the car
and they have a machine gun.
(GUN CLICKS)
He said, "I don't want you guys
taking the bunnies!"
I don't want you guys
taking those bunnies!
MONICA: He said,
"Those bunnies are mine."
Those bunnies are mine!
(MUSIC DISTORTING) ♪
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(BIRDS CAWING)
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA GRIGGS:
So, this is Jenada Isle.
It's an island, so there's
only one entrance in and out.
This is a great neighborhood.
There's 81 homes
and everybody knows everybody.
I'm Alicia Griggs and I live
in Jenada Isle in Wilton Manors
and I've lived in
the neighborhood for 39 years,
since 1984.
This is the house
where the woman lived
that left the rabbits
in the street.
A couple of years ago,
one of the neighbors
had a lot of rabbits.
Hi. (CHUCKLES)
She wasn't
a very responsible pet owner.
I'm not
a very responsible pet owner.
I'm an absolute sociopath.
ALICIA: When she moved,
she just left
all the extra rabbits
in the street
to fend for themselves.
I'm leaving you
to fend for yourself.
ALICIA: And they've multiplied
because they weren't fixed,
and they just continued
to multiply.
REPORTER: They were first
spotted a couple years back
when one neighbor
left them behind.
I think she had three rabbits
and she let them out.
Three months ago, we had
110 rabbits all over the place.
ALICIA:
They can reproduce every 30 days
and they can have one
to 12 bunnies every single time.
I just was pushing constantly
to try and get the rabbits
to be rescued and rehomed.
And I was calling everybody,
trying to see
if anybody could help do it.
And nobody would do it,
so I called this person, Kim.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA:
She is a wealthy socialite
that has a sanctuary
for rabbits.
Welcome to my home.
It is Marion Sims Wyeth,
the architect of Mar-a-Lago.
My name is Kim Renk.
I am
a proud animal rescue person.
There have been times
when all eight bedrooms
and nine bathrooms of this house
have been filled with bunnies
that I've rescued.
ALICIA: She knows
a lot of wealthy people,
and she likes to be
the center of attention,
has a lot of contacts,
so she can get things done.
Since the time
I can remember thinking,
I have been obsessed
with rabbits.
Literally,
since I was three years old,
I think my first thoughts
were rabbits.
You're precious.
You're precious.
I love grass, too.
We can smell the grass together.
(SNIFFS)
KIM RENK: Come on, babies.
Come on, bunny.
Banana treat. Banana.
Banana treat.
Rabbits wake up
at about four o'clock
and they're nocturnal,
so this is their sleepy time.
This is the time
that they lounge on the veranda
and enjoy life in Palm Beach.
There's two more here somewhere.
Um, this is the master.
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Well, welcome.
You can see
Wolfman Jack and Shorty
lounging on the bed
in the lap of luxury.
INTERVIEWER:
KIM: Wherever they want.
My husband's rabbit
sleeps in bed with us
every single night.
And I wish my husband
would be here,
but he, uh, sadly,
is in the investment world
and didn't think
this would bode well for him
because his little rabbit Shorty
sleeps in bed
with him every night.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
KIM:
So, one day, Alicia called me,
and she explained
the horrible situation
going on here.
I immediately
jumped into action.
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: So, I dialed Monica.
I thought she could help.
Hey, Honey Bunny. This is
Honey-- Okay, Honey Bunny.
This is Honey Bunny.
My name is Monica Mitchell.
My rescue,
East Coast Rabbit Rescue.
There's only few rabbit rescues,
and there are so many needs.
At one point, I had over
a hundred bunnies at once.
This is
Bun-New York City room,
and I call this
the Bun-hattan. (CHUCKLES)
You have the Bunstro,
the Bun Statue.
I always put the B-U-N,
like "bunny,"
like the Bunklyn--
Bunklyn Bridge,
'cause you go
from Manhattan to Bunklyn,
like Brooklyn,
but Bunklyn, yeah.
This is my own rescue.
I started working
with rabbits back in 2012.
INTERVIEWER:
My pocket.
Most of the, you know,
the funding comes
from my savings.
You know, I sold everything
I had back in Brazil
and kind of started
to the rescue.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Monica said
she didn't have enough money,
and I said,
"I can get the money."
I can get the money.
"Show me the money."
Tom Cruise in
whatever that movie was
where he's dancing
in his underwear
in front of the fireplace.
"Show me the money."
Let's get the money.
So, of course, the first thing
I thought of was,
"How do you get the money?"
You have some sort
of an outreach.
My publicist, Lisa Bitner, said,
"I'll get the Associated Press."
TERRY SPENCER:
I'm Terry Spencer.
I'm the Broward-Palm Beach
correspondent
for the Associated Press.
I got a call from a publicist,
and she said that
there was this rabbit
infestation in a neighborhood.
So I started checking it out,
and it turned out
to be a pretty good story.
KIM: It went viral.
Poof! Like a match
to some dried newspapers.
REPORTER: Dozens of bunnies
are taking over
a neighborhood in Wilton Manors.
These rabbits
are overrunning everything,
and now a group
is trying to rescue them
rather than exterminate them.
KIM: Everywhere you went,
you heard the story.
And the money
just kept coming in,
and I'm not saying it's enough,
but it was enough to get them
to go out and help the animals.
There were these rescue groups
that said,
"Okay, we'll come in."
Okay. We'll come in.
"And we'll get the rabbits."
And we'll get the rabbits.
(SCREECHING)
KIM: But sadly,
to every good side of a story,
there's the yin and yang.
You've been talking
to residents.
What are
they telling you, Julia?
Mixed emotions over this,
certainly, Sheli.
There were some people
who got quite angry.
They thought that the rabbits
were going to be killed.
They didn't want
the rabbits to go away.
And so it became
very much a divide.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOE JONES:
When the rescue teams came out,
it was complete turmoil
on the island.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NEIGHBOR:
It seemed like a free-for-all.
There was really
no organization.
All of a sudden,
there would be one group.
(DISTORTED SHOUTS)
-NEIGHBOR:
Then there's another group.
-(GROWLING)
They were running all over
each other's properties.
People that came
acted like vigilantes.
They came onto the property
and started hitting stuff
and trampling things,
and breaking stuff.
(GRUNTS)
(YELLS)
"Oh, there's bunny babies
in here."
There are bunny babies in here!
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
-It was a nightmare.
(YELLS)
I've never seen anything like it
in my life.
And I've traveled
the world extensively
on business and otherwise.
-Oh, là, là, chérie.
-(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER: Not everyone is glad
to see them go.
They're an asset.
They're lovely.
They make everybody smile.
REPORTER: Joe Jones said
he wants the bunnies
in his yard to stick around.
I found one two and a half
years ago in my pool
and saved the little thing,
and sort of got hooked on 'em.
My name is Joe Jones.
I've lived on this island
in this house for 33 years.
Let's see, how do you do that?
We respect each other's privacy
out here, and I like that.
Except that woman,
that troublemaker up there,
she caused a lot of problems.
Joseph Jones
got a really big house.
He doesn't use all the rooms,
so he can take the rabbits in
if he wanted to,
but he just likes
to keep them in the yard
because he thinks
they're delightful.
They're delightful.
The children love to see them.
I'm not worried about
their health in the least
because I've never seen
any health issues.
No fleas, no ticks,
no malnutrition.
They seem extremely healthy
and well rested.
Most of the residents,
they said the bunnies are fine.
But just because you see
a bunny hopping around
doesn't mean that he's healthy.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: These rabbits are like
little miniature poodles.
They have personalities.
They're called lionhead rabbits.
They're small and furry,
and they were bred
to be extremely domestic
and extremely friendly
to humans.
(LOUD WHIRRING)
DYLAN:
They are pet rabbits
that have no clue
what they're doing outside.
They don't know not
to cross the street.
They get hit by cars.
They get hit by golf carts.
All of their fear
has been bred out of them.
They're sitting ducks for dogs
that get let loose off leash
-(HAWK SCREECHING)
-or hawks, eagles,
other hungry birds
that come down
and grab them.
MONICA: We rescued 44 bunnies
from that community.
Every single one,
they had medical issues.
Mange, ear mites, fleas.
They're supposed
to be eating hay all day
or else their teeth continue
to grow and they can't even eat.
If the bunny doesn't eat
in six to eight hours, they die.
If they are
not brushed regularly,
they start to have
their hair ball.
They die.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHRIS CAPUTO: Ultimately,
what happened, right,
is it's blowing up.
It's literally, again,
we have residents that
are threatening other residents.
So we threw a town hall.
Hey, good evening. Gary Blocker,
chief of your Wilton Manors
Police Department.
Uh, yesterday,
you were provided a,
hopefully, an extensive menu--
not a menu, uh, memo.
(CROWD LAUGHING)
Rabbit stew, rabbit steak.
They all laughed about it.
The rabbits were on the menu.
Like he joked about eating them.
Hopefully, you've had
an opportunity to digest that.
We're really looking here to
-(CROWD LAUGHING)
-(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
You know, keep in mind that
if the trappers
do trap the rabbits,
and they have no place
to put them,
that they're going
to be euthanized.
I don't know what the answer is
besides that, though.
Right.
I watched the commission meeting
and it said that
they would be euthanized.
The best word is a British word
called "gobsmacked."
I was gobsmacked.
The town was going
to euthanize them
in a really inhumane way.
The thought that somebody would
inject antifreeze to kill them
was unthinkable to me.
Chris Caputo, I think,
is the commissioner,
he expressed a desire
for a mass extermination
before the problem
got out of hand.
This isn't Germany.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I became a villain
because there's this belief
that there was
bunny genocides in place.
But some sound bites get
a little bit out of hand, right?
And then everyone
just makes an assumption
about what's happening
without asking for any facts.
It didn't look so good
that he was in favor
of euthanizing
all these rabbits.
And Chris Caputo suddenly, poof,
had a change of heart.
ALICIA:
So the city was allowed
to spend up to 30,000 dollars
to get rid of the problem.
Isn't that interesting?
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ALICIA: So I pushed the city
to use Monica
so that we could get
something going
to rescue the bunnies.
(GASPS)
(IN DISTORTED VOICE)
Those bunnies are mine!
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
-Just get the fuck out of here!
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Get out of here!
Get the fuck out of here!
My volunteers,
they don't want to stay there.
"DYLAN": Go, go, go, go!
We had some residents
taking pictures
of our license plates
and of our faces.
-"DYLAN": You gotta drive!
-(SCREAMS)
MONICA: I think
the residents thought
that we were the exterminators,
not that we were the rescuers.
(GUNSHOT ECHOING)
I would like to say,
are you kidding me?
Shame on me.
I stood back for two months,
thinking other people
were going to solve it.
But they didn't.
-So I came here to do a rescue.
-(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I realized this was
a scary place,
a dangerous place.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM:
I call it the Twilight Zone.
Have you ever seen
The Twilight Zone?
It's an old series,
but a really phenomenal series.
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM:
Many of the people approached me
and they did not want anyone
in their neighborhood,
even though
they're public streets.
I was not prepared
for the anger of the residents.
Stop!
It was a very scary atmosphere.
It was nighttime.
I was in my Jeep,
following the vigilante groups.
Stop.
JOE: A lady came to my Jeep
and banged
on my driver's window.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
JOE: She screamed profanities.
I am screaming profanities.
She was crazy and she was drunk
and she was terrible.
I am crazy, I am drunk,
and I'm terrible.
She said, "Get your pit bull
out of your backseat."
(PANTS, GROWLING)
And I said, "That's not
a pit bull, that's a neighbor."
(SCOFFS) Mm-hmm.
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
-KIM: I had a truckload
full of middle-aged men that
looked like giant potatoes
(LAUGHS) that approached
and said, "Where do you live?"
Where do you live?
KIM: That's always
the question you get
when you go
to Wilton Manors.
It should be a T-shirt.
"Where do you live?"
Question mark.
Where do you live?
RESIDENTS: Where do you live?
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
(VOICES DISTORTING)
Where do you live?
-Where do you live?
-Where do you live?
Somebody asked her
if she lived in the neighborhood
and she said no,
she lives in a 20-million-dollar
house in Palm Beach.
She was leaning
on the person's car.
(SQUEAKS)
ALICIA: And I think he might
have told her to get off the car
or pushed her or something.
(GASPS)
(GROANING EXAGGERATEDLY)
(GROANS DISTORTING)
And my life was threatened,
and I called the police.
So she called the police
and tried to make a report,
but they didn't
show up for 45 minutes,
so she got upset.
Took them quite a while
to arrive, to be quite honest.
-(INSECTS CHIRPING)
-(SIGHS)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KIM: This can't go on here.
It can't go on
that there's fear.
Fear has to be eradicated
in this life.
There's no reason
that residents who live here
are in fear
of helping the rabbits.
Alicia Griggs is in fear.
That's why
she's in her house right now.
She's afraid of her neighbors.
I don't blame her.
My life was threatened
on these very streets.
We live in
the United States of America,
and we're on public property
on the street,
and all I can say
is no one should live in fear.
It's wrong. It's wrong.
-It's wrong.
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
There was
a follow-up meeting on Zoom,
and it was supposed to be
for the neighbors
who wanted to keep the bunnies
around in their yards.
All right, good evening,
Wilton Manors community.
Jenada Isle.
Thank everybody
for being here tonight.
Nobody really showed up,
so it was a waste of time.
Right now,
we do have about five attendees.
Um, yes, is it
a little disappointing
we didn't get more than five?
Yes, I'll be very candid
with you.
Gary Blocker, again, he's just
a puppet of the organization,
but he sent an email stating
that nothing else was happening.
And he said
in that email that he
"hoped the rabbits that were
remaining wouldn't procreate."
How could no one do nothing?
And I know that
it's improper grammar,
but it applies
in this situation.
-(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-That was the last thing
that we heard from Jenada.
We could not reach
our goal, you know?
I threw the football to them.
They didn't do the job.
Now we have to do more.
For what reason God
has called me to help,
I don't know.
But I'm asking him to call
somebody else next time.
If nothing's done,
the problem will continue,
and the population will be
bigger and bigger
and bigger and bigger.
JOE: It's history.
Turn the page.
Close the chapter.
That the whole situation is,
in my opinion, taken care of.
But I will continue to do
whatever I can to make it right,
to save all those rabbits,
to make a difference,
to have the story be told
across the United States
of America.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
Please, let justice be served.
-(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-Just another mimosa morning ♪
Golden hour
At the start of day ♪
We're going tonight. And we're
gonna get some of those rabbits.
I have my professional trapper
with no teeth.
I hope he won't feel offended
when I say that.
But he's amazing.
And we're gonna
get more rabbits.
And we're gonna solve it.
Did you guys want a drink?
-Or anything?
-(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
Waters, like there's vodka.
I am not crazy, I am not drunk,
and I'm not terrible.
Just another mimosa morning ♪
Crack of dawn
And picture light ♪
Champagne bubbles
In my orange juice ♪
Sleepy bones on ♪
You and I got to lose ♪
(SONG CONTINUES) ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪