August and September were crazy months giving us several news stories about raccoons. A Bronx beauty shop was broken into but the perp turned out to be a raccoon. The employee who opened the shop found wigs and pieces of ceiling scattered around the floor. At first she thought the furry interloper was a big cat. She called 911.
The cops responded with tranquilizer gun, catch pole and a cage stocked with marshmallows in tow. The raccoon was having none of it. The marshmallows weren't enticing enough, a dart from the tranquilizer gun failed to deliver its knockout dose and even though the catch pole worked, the door of the cage malfunctioned allowing the raccoon to escape leading the cops on a merry chase through the store. The long arm of the law finally snared the four legged bandit for a second time with the catch pole, wrangling him into the cage and securing the door with zip ties.
During the dog days of August a rabid raccoon was captured after fighting with some street cats in Bensonhurst at 78th Street and 16th Avenue. City officials issued a rabies alert with the City offering free rabies vaccines for pets after the incident. Apparently the Bensonhurst incident was the third one in Brooklyn this year. The others were at 51st Street and 17th Avenue and East Fourth Street and Avenue C.
The US Wildlife Services got in on the action by vaccinating raccoons with a new two-step process. Vaccine-laced treats are left out in green spaces for the raccoons to find and eat. Kind of like a cross between a vitamin and a candy tidbit, the vaccines are coated with a highly scented fishy smelling covering of vegetable fat, icing sugar and marshmallow flavoring. If a pet should eat one, the morsels are safe but too many might induce vomiting. Humans can break out in a rash if the vaccine gets into an open wound.
Step 2 is to trap the raccoons to check a blood sample to determine if the proportion of vaccine is effective. The plan is to pepper Brooklyn from Canarsie to Coney Island along with Prospect Park with the treat dispensers but no one would confirm if Bensonhurst and Boro Park where 2 of the 3 rabid raccoons were caught were included in that list.
During the dog days of August a rabid raccoon was captured after fighting with some street cats in Bensonhurst at 78th Street and 16th Avenue. City officials issued a rabies alert with the City offering free rabies vaccines for pets after the incident. Apparently the Bensonhurst incident was the third one in Brooklyn this year. The others were at 51st Street and 17th Avenue and East Fourth Street and Avenue C.
The US Wildlife Services got in on the action by vaccinating raccoons with a new two-step process. Vaccine-laced treats are left out in green spaces for the raccoons to find and eat. Kind of like a cross between a vitamin and a candy tidbit, the vaccines are coated with a highly scented fishy smelling covering of vegetable fat, icing sugar and marshmallow flavoring. If a pet should eat one, the morsels are safe but too many might induce vomiting. Humans can break out in a rash if the vaccine gets into an open wound.
Step 2 is to trap the raccoons to check a blood sample to determine if the proportion of vaccine is effective. The plan is to pepper Brooklyn from Canarsie to Coney Island along with Prospect Park with the treat dispensers but no one would confirm if Bensonhurst and Boro Park where 2 of the 3 rabid raccoons were caught were included in that list.
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| One of the usual suspects. (courtesy Wikipedia) |
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