Posted on 12/20/2014 4:53:23 AM PST by Gamecock
West Harlem residents say a posse of raccoons has taken over their neighborhoods and in some cases even broken into their homes.
“These things think they live here and they actually walk in if you leave an opening,” said resident Lauren Flanigan.
Pictures from residents showed a raccoon making itself comfortable on the patio of a West Harlem home, and even coming up to the door. And that raccoon was not alone, residents said.
“They came in the kitchen, and they’re not that friendly, and they also pushed the window screens in,” Flanigan told CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco.
“They climb over the fences to the next backyard and they keep going from backyard to backyard, so that’s why it’s not one homeowner’s problem. It’s everybody’s problem,” Maria Freeman said.
Residents complained that the raccoons wreak havoc in the streets daily, and believe they make the trek from Central Park. They want the city to do something because the problem is only getting worse.
“These raccoons don’t behave normally. They’re out during the day time when they should be sleeping. They are not afraid of humans. They’re aggressive,” Flanigan said.
Residents are now asking the city to step in and pay for a trap-and-release service to get rid of the raccoons before mating season starts in January.
In a statement the city said they are “staunchly committed to addressing all constituent requests from New Yorkers across the five boroughs, including animal related complaints and inquiries.”
Residents say help can’t come soon enough.
Roast raccoon used to be featured on restaurant menus.
Looks like a kind of scrawny and hungry raccoon.
The raccoons sound like illegal aliens. Lauren better watch out or one of the raccoons will take her job.
I guess they aren’t really mailboxes after all.
Could this be a euphemism for “criminal illegal aliens”.
It’s probably gay with Aids
Just a reminder to any Freepers in West Harlem: It is a violation of Federal Law to use rat poison except as directed on the lable. Do NOT leave rat poison where raccoons can get at it.
Sounds like a job for Al and Jesse!
Raccoons and skunks are notorious for carrying rabies, so this also has health implications.
Oh the IRONY!!
City dwellers tend to litter like crazy; food wrappers galore. No wonder they have infestations.
A number of years ago I worked with a gal who lived out that way and she told me her husband had shot about 20 coons from their back porch over the course of one week as the coons were rummaging around the garbage at the back of their property.
She couldn’t figure out why there were so damn many coons out there but as it turns out, their property borders all that state land where the pest control companies release the coons…….
At that same time I met a guy who traps coons as a hobby then sells them to a furrier that sets up his truck at the Great Lakes Crossing parking lot every Sunday. He said that he does all his trapping on that state land out by my friend’s house…….
Coon hunting in Harlem? Who’d a thunk it? ; )
Do Owls live in the baseboards? Like Futurama?
If they had some Burmese Pythons it would solve their problem!
Harlem isn't rural...
My, the ‘statement from the city’ is certainly reassuring, isn’t it? What a heap of politically correct BS.
Racoons are good eating if prepared properly. Oh wait, this is NYC where residents are more afraid of guns than they are racoons. Sorry.
They do the same thing out here in the Pa. countryside.
BOOM!
But they only do it once here.
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