(OPINION) Rabbits that have "black, tentacle-like protrusions coming from their heads" are being spotted all over Fort Collins, Colorado and many local residents are extremely concerned about this.

Some people are jokingly referring to them as "mutant rabbits", but there is nothing funny about the tremendous tragedy that we are witnessing.

A nightmarish plague is infecting rabbits in Colorado and elsewhere, but like so many other horrifying pestilences that are spreading among wild animals it has gone under the radar because it is not affecting humans.

How would you feel if "tentacle-like growths" started growing out of your face? Sadly, that is precisely what is happening to large numbers of rabbits in Fort Collins, Colorado...

Residents in Fort Collins have been spotting something unusual while walking in their neighborhoods: rabbits that appear to have tentacle-like growths on their faces.

KUSA reached out to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the NOCO Humane Society about the unusual bunnies.

I had never heard about this before, and so I decided to look into it, and what I discovered is truly heartbreaking.

According to one local resident, a rabbit that looks like it has "black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth" has been hanging around her property. She thought that the disease would kill it last winter, but that didn't happen...

Recently residents in southeast Fort Collins began noticing the unusual-looking rabbits, including 9NEWS Northern Colorado reporter Amanda Gilbert. Susan Mansfield said she saw a rabbit with black spines or "quills" around its mouth.

"It looks like it was black quills or black toothpicks sticking out all around his or her mouth," Mansfield said. "I thought he would die off during the winter, but he didn't. He came back a second year, and it grew."

One person described the rabbit as having "a scabbiesh-looking growth over their face."

Since most people that are seeing these rabbits have no idea what is causing this disease, there is quite a bit of panic.

Apparently this disease has spread quite widely among rabbits in the region, and authorities are telling us that it is caused by a virus...

Some rabbits spotted in Fort Collins are showing alarming growths described as black, tentacle-like protrusions coming from their heads.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) confirms the cause is a virus. The condition is not dangerous to humans or pets, CPW said, but they urge people to avoid approaching or touching the animals.

They say that there is no danger to humans, but we are supposed to completely avoid touching the rabbits?

That sounds like a mixed message to me. The virus that is affecting these rabbits is known as "Shope papillomavirus", and it is most commonly found in the Midwest...

According to the University of Missouri, the condition, called rabbit (Shope) papillomavirus, is a DNA virus "seen most frequently in cottontail rabbits of the Midwest with outbreaks in domestic rabbits." READ MORE