[RC8]

Last year there was the incident where a man was charged with beating baby raccoons with a shovel..... and then someone else organized an "anti-raccoon rally" in support of that person.

http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/node/1140

Fun times in my neighbourhood.

Stupid people ridden with defensive mechanisms, really. Same mentality as school bullies or people who defend the 'right' of others to carry guns and shoot people to settle disputes.

 

[doady]

Right, because beating raccoons is like shooting another person. That man should have settled his "dispute" with the raccoons the same way he would with another human being, because we all know how intelligent and reasonable raccoons are.

 

[EVCco]

To EVCCo -- yeah, that sucks. Some people are wired differently. Cultural sensitivities are a factor. I remember in Taipei I was playing with some puppies in an alleyway and a motocyclist drove through without slowing down, crushing one of the puppies under his bike. He just stared at me as he drove by, as if to say, "Why are you playing with puppies?" Not sure there's a good, rational answer to his question, either. Just 'cuz I think puppies are cute and fluffy doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way. Almost 15 years later, I'm still haunted by the yelping and crunching sounds, as well as by the cold (and valid) conduct of the Chinese motorcyclist.

Yikes! Did the motorcyclist do this on purpose or was it just an accident. I don't think I would have minded as much if the car I saw had accidently hit the raccoon and still didn't care. I didn't exactly break down in tears myself when it happened.

It was just the fact that this person clearly went out of their way to run it down on purpose, for no aparent reason.

"Culture," of course, can be used to excuse a lot of stupid shit too. But then again, I've been known to squash the odd spider around the house, so who's to say? I just know the next time I see a spider I migh think twice about that now.

As for people getting upset about raccoons in their garbage, etc. - I've been there, it's annoying. But at the end of the day I feel it to be more of a displaced anger at our own stupidity. The raccoons were here first. We knew they were here. There were tons of them to begin with. Then we went out of our way to make city life even more accomodating for them - even putting out a regular smorgasbord at the end of our driveways every week - so now there's even more raccoons around than there used to be.

If you knowingly move into a house next to an airport, then basically install another runway in your own backyard, should you then go around clubbing pilots in the head with shovels because their planes make too much noise? Or do find a way to adapt and live with it?

Sure, it may be expensive. But stupidity often is costly.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I currently live in a 1970's, brick, 30-storey highrise - one of those wide "tower in the park" type buildings. A resident here came home to her apartment on the 12th floor this week and found a full grown raccoon on her balcony. Maintenance tried to get it off but the raccoon went and made his way further up and ended up on a 16th floor balcony! Animal control had to be brought in as they didn't want the animal possibly falling from that distance and they caught it within a few hours in a cage & removed it.
In the last highrise I lived in we had a chronic problem with squirrels on the balconies, that building is 33 Wood Street right next to the Gardens. It has a very easy to climb "pebble" concrete face so the squirrels can climb it easily, but I never heard of a raccoon climbing up 16 storeys!

From my webcam, 23rd floor, March & April 2003 -

 

[Dan416]

If you go out on the balcony won't the squirrel just run away?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Nope. A broom works, but they came back.

 

[GKW]

Came home early in the morning Sat and was about to open my front door when I heard a noise..went to the side of the house to see what it was..turns out it was a racoon which had knocked down our green food recycling bin which (had a brick on top) and was rummaging around inside for something to eat..I startled him and he ran off into my backyard but the buggers are getting clever if they now know to tip over the food bin with a brick on the lid to get inside..

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

They are patient and they learn how to get into those bins no matter how you try and lock them down which is why they do so well in the city; it's a smorgasbord for them!

 

[BrianSYYZ]

Hang Your Green Bin

^ There is no solution except to keep the green bin indoors and put it out only on collection day, as close to collection time as possible.

All the research that I've looked at regarding repellents is that they don't work. Someone is making some money, though!

I hang my green bin on a fence and raccoons can't get into it. I hang it just high enough that they can't push open the latch from below. And if they get on top, they can't open it because their own weight prevents them from doing so.

Also, the city of Toronto used to sell a really great locking mechanism and I bought two of them. And raccoons have never got into my green bins since. But the city stopped making them available.

 

[jusbokeh]

A great racoon repellant.

120lbs of German Shepherd

 

[salsa]

I find it incredible that a racoon can outsmart the idiot who designed the green bin's locking system (or lack of).

 

[Johnny Au]

Try mint leaves.

They smell pleasant to humans, but is an effective raccoon repellent that is 100% non-toxic and 100% natural. We used that trick and raccoons never went in.

 

[newearthling]

What a great thread! Squirrels, and racoons both, are vindictive buggers.

 

[Eug]

Bastards. They're ripping up my roof again. At least this time I can easily scare them off though. However, perhaps in retaliation, they crap on my roof and balcony about 2 inches from the balcony door to my bedroom and on my daughter's bedroom. IOW, in both spots they crap as close to my balcony doors as they can get.

A couple of years ago, it was a big bugger and s/he would stand its ground on my balcony and hiss at me. I even pushed it with a broom and it would continue to stand its ground. Finally I started poking it with the pointy end of the broom stick and it finally ran off. But then it came back a couple of times. I had to do the same thing each time, or else it would just stand there and stare at me, 10 feet away from me. In retrospect I'm thinking I was lucky I wasn't attacked by the thing.

 

[Hank]

Bastards. They're ripping up my roof again. At least this time I can easily scare them off though. However, perhaps in retaliation, they crap on my roof and balcony about 2 inches from the balcony door to my bedroom and on my daughter's bedroom. IOW, in both spots they crap as close to my balcony doors as they can get.

A couple of years ago, it was a big bugger and s/he would stand its ground on my balcony and hiss at me. I even pushed it with a broom and it would continue to stand its ground. Finally I started poking it with the pointy end of the broom stick and it finally ran off. But then it came back a couple of times. I had to do the same thing each time, or else it would just stand there and stare at me, 10 feet away from me. In retrospect I'm thinking I was lucky I wasn't attacked by the thing.

There's a great product called "Shoo!" that you can spray around that raccoons really don't like. That being said, I'm definitely not helping the situation. For the past two years a large mother raccoon has raised litters in and around my back yard, and other than trying to scare them into leaving, I haven't really done much (both years they left eventually). This year she raised her litter in our shed (she got in through a hatch we use to store patio furniture cushions), and pretty much every day I would open the shed and try to yell and look scary to get her to take her pups and leave. I didn't have the heart to do anything more than that. It did work in the end, I suppose.