Inverness Forest Today: Raccoon

The following article appears as an addendum to the May 2009 board minutes. The board wanted to make sure this information was widely disseminated.

Stay Away from Raccoons and DON’T FEED THEM!!

As we are all aware, our neighborhood backs on to woods with all the wildlife benefits and nuisances that it brings. Unfortunately, if we don't all follow sound advice from experts, our interaction with wildlife can be a hazard to them and us. In general, we should appreciate wildlife from a distance. Please review the information below and follow the instructions so you can keep yourself and the rest of the community safe.

1 - Raccoons are a "disease vector" – they are the #1 carrier of rabies in the State of Maryland and a quarter of all cases occur in Montgomery County. Raccoons carry a number of other diseases as well.

If a human is bitten by a raccoon, they must undergo an expensive and painful series of shots. If you wait until symptoms appear, it is too late and the disease is fatal.
Inverness Forest has already had one canine death from a tick-borne illness that only transmitted by a tick that has been on an infected raccoon.
Raccoons have already established "latrines" at three homes
Many people think that they are safe around raccoons if they don't act rabid. The fact is that the virus incubates for two to six months, during which time they are contagious, but not symptomatic.

2. Feeding raccoons (or any wildlife) encourages a larger-than-natural size population which puts the entire animal community at risk for disease.

Raccoons have a natural aversion to human contact. Feeding them and socializing them removes this fear so that they will be more likely to be where they shouldn't. Raccoons are wild - they cannot be tamed or domesticated.
Feeding wildlife also makes them dependent on that food source and reduces the dietary variety that they need.

3. Raccoons can be very disruptive to our living spaces and adversely impact our quality of life:

When nesting, they can invade attic spaces which causes a great deal of damage to our homes, increases potential for exposure to their diseases, and incurs a substantial cost to remove them.
Pets who make contact with raccoons will be quarantined – 45 days if rabies shots are current; six months if not. This means your animal cannot leave your property or have contact with any other animal for this period of time (or you will face a $500 fine).

Wild raccoons generally do not pose a problem to humans because they only come out at night and usually will run away when humans approach. Unfortunately, we currently have a fairly large (10-15) population of socialized raccoons near 10801 through 10851 Deborah Dr. As mentioned above, we've had one canine death, one canine quarantine and 3 latrines established so far. To reduce the negative impact of this socialized community of raccoons, we need to observe diligently the following guidelines until the raccoons return to their natural wild state:

Do not approach a raccoon if you can avoid it - they can be vicious and you do not want to risk injury that would require you to undergo rabies shots; it is suggested that you try to scare them away by banging on pots or pans or squirting water at them from a hose.
Do not feed raccoons (raccoons are omnivorous). Keep all pet food inside at night; even leaving bird-food out overnight can attract them. Do not feed the squirrels either.
Do not leave garbage outside in containers that are not raccoon-proof (raccoons have opposable thumbs and are extremely smart).

Our options for reducing the current nuisance population are not pleasant (and the lack of good options is why one expert termed feeding and socializing raccoons a "death sentence"). There are humane traps that can be used (so that if a cat or squirrel is accidentally caught, it can be safely released), but it is difficult to rehabilitate raccoons and they will find their way back. By law, if we hire a commercial trapper to remove the animals, the animals will be euthanized. It is illegal to poison them - with good reason: pets, particularly cats who roam, and innocent wildlife can ingest the poison. Even if the poison is swallowed by a raccoon that poison is in the environment and can adversely affect carrion animals.