Sounds like one of the many horrible summer-time movies released by Hollywood this year, but it is actually reality for Olympia, Washington residents:
Raccoons have killed about 10 cats in a three-block area near the Garfield Nature Trail at Harrison Avenue West and Foote Street Southwest.
Problem wildlife coordinator Sean Carrell of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife called the situation “bizarre, weird.”
“I’ve never heard a report of 10 cats being killed. It’s something we’re going to have to monitor,” he said. He added that they may have to bring in trappers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The problem got so bad that residents Kari Hall and Tamara Keeton even started a Raccoon Watch after having an emotional neighborhood meeting attended by about 40 people.
It gets even stranger:
One thing that makes these raccoons scary is they have no fear. One neighbor threw firecrackers at them to try to scare them off, and it didn’t even bug them, Hall said.
“It’s a new breed,” Keeton said. “They’re urban raccoons, and they’re not afraid.”
“There’s one really big bad dude,” she added.
“He was the biggest raccoon I’ve ever seen. He was a monster,” added Tony Benjamins, whose family has had two cats killed.
No doubt the liberals in Washington State are asking things like, “Why do the raccoons hate us?” When I first read this, my first thought was that the people in the area had been feeding the raccoons for a long time, so now the raccoons are not afraid of the people and have become bolder. Sure enough:
The neighbors hired trapper Tom Brown, a nuisance wildlife control operator from Rochester.
Brown said of the raccoons, “They are in command up there.”
He said he’s seen packs this big, but none so into killing. There was one in Rochester that killed a peacock last winter and another in Grand Mound that killed three chickens. But nothing like this.
Brown said there is an overabundance of food in the area with many fruit trees.
“And the good folks feed them. They’re cute as a bug’s ear,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t mind being a raccoon up there.”
I wonder how cute they are when they’re walking away with your kitty cat in their little paws?
Turns out that the animals are rather smart:
Brown said he hasn’t trapped more because raccoons are intelligent. They teach their young, the same as beavers do. He said one big male boar is the main killer, and he’s tasted blood, and he wants more. He’s usually helped by one or two others.
“The boar’s likely been in a live trap before,” Brown said.
Carrell added: “It’s highly unlikely you will ever trap him again, and he’ll teach the others to stay away.”
Maybe they can be transplanted to the local PETA chapter’s president’s home for protection.
