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The bunnies sat in stacked cages on the downtown sidewalk. They nibbled
\non lettuce as passers-by stopped to pet them. How much? A young woman
\ncheerfully named her price. ($20 is the going rate.)<\/p>\n
"No photographs," she said, passing a hand in front of a rabbit as a
\nphotographer snapped pictures.<\/p>\n
On a sunny Saturday, she scanned the throngs coursing along Maple Avenue Suddenly, she gasped. She and other vendors whisked black garbage bags In seconds, they were swarmed by half a dozen yellow-shirted Business Security officer Alondra Alonzo tussled with one vendor, wresting a bag "It’s 5 months old," said the woman, who identified herself as Stacy In the weeks before Easter, the illegal bunny trade is booming in In Los Angeles, selling anything on the sidewalk is against the law.<\/p>\n Though the sale of animals may not be on an economic par with the An arrest for illegal sidewalk selling brings a citation. But if an Two weeks ago, LAPD Officer Matthew Shafer arrested a man downtown on Earlier Saturday, Shafer, downtown security officers and rabbit "For these people, this is just a business," said Shafer.<\/p>\n Shafer, who owns three rescue dogs, said collaring sidewalk vendors "I know all the players down here," he said. And they know the tall, The vendors rely on lookouts — on foot, scooters and bicycles — to But on this Saturday, that didn’t stop Shafer from arresting a vendor "They might survive," she said of her charges.<\/p>\n — Carla Hall<\/p>\n Stay up-to-date on animal news: Follow Unleashed on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Top photo: A street vendor slips a plastic bag over cages containing rabbits and turtles as she scrambles to leave the corner of 12th St. and Maple Ave. in L.A. Credit: Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n
\n toward 12th Street, en route to the Santee Alley<\/a> shopping bazaar.<\/p>\n
\nover the cages, grabbed them and anything else they could carry and
\nscurried off.<\/p>\n
\nImprovement District security officers and a Los Angeles police officer.
\n A bucket of turtles ended up dropped in the middle of 12th Street.<\/p>\n
\nof rabbits from her grip. The vendor, annoyed, walked off with a single
\nrabbit.<\/p>\n
\nMartinez when asked if the animal was unweaned. "They are well taken
\ncare of." She handed the caged rabbit to a little girl, who placed it on
\n her lap.<\/p>\n
\ndowntown Los Angeles. "It’s kind of a perennial problem," said Lt. Paul
\nVernon of the LAPD, especially around holidays.<\/p>\n
\nselling of counterfeit designer handbags and bootleg DVDs, what makes it
\n particularly egregious to animal rescuers, the Department of Animal
\nServices and law enforcement officers is that the animals are usually
\nunweaned, malnourished and destined to die once buyers get them home.<\/p>\n
\nanimal control officer can certify that the animals are being badly
\nkept, the vendor can be arrested on suspicion of felony animal cruelty.<\/p>\n
\nsuspicion of animal cruelty and confiscated more than 100 animals,
\nincluding rabbits and iguanas. "I try to get them at their point of
\nentry: parking lots," Shafer said.<\/p>\n
\nrescuers had set out to a rooftop parking lot. There, in an unlocked
\nChevy van, they found a container full of dozens of green turtles
\nclambering over one another.<\/p>\n
\nillegally selling DVDs and animals is "my favorite thing."<\/p>\n
\nhazel-eyed cop. They have nicknamed him Guero — a not-so-endearing term
\n for "white boy."<\/p>\n
\nwarn them by cellphone, walkie-talkie or air horn that officers are
\napproaching, he said.<\/p>\n
\nwho gave her name as Veronica Maldonado. As she stood by, handcuffed,
\nrabbit rescuer Lejla Hadzimuratovic cradled two tiny bunnies, just days
\nold, their eyes unopened. She will take all the underage rabbits home
\nand nurse them with kitten formula and colostrum pills. (By the way,
\nshe said, lettuce destroys the systems of young rabbits.)<\/p>\n<\/img> <\/p>\n