Dealing with Urban Wildlife - Alameda (Island City)

How can this population be humanely reduced?

Driving Linda Mar Boulevard on the way home Wednesday night, within 1 mile a young skunk and an adult deer ran across the road.  We live with wild life in Pacifica. Raccoons jump over our fences, enter our pet doors, get into our garbage cans and are a general nuisance, but they have plenty of room to roam, don't think they are attacking us.  

From SF Gate 11/11/2010, re-posted on fwix. "....  Nine raccoon attacks have been reported since June. In the latest, five raccoons went after an Alamedan woman as she was walking through Washington Park Sunday night (four actually came out of a tree to run after her), which must have been like being stalked by a pack of small dogs. Very scary. So far the San Jose Mercury News, the The Los Angeles Times, and Minnesota Public Radio have all reported on the story. 

 

The problem, according to a (video) KTVU report, is that while raccoon populations are exploding all over the Bay Area, Alameda is "landlocked" (it's actually surrounded by water, of course), so the raccoons can't spread out. That makes them more territorial and more aggressive. And in an interview with Patch posted this morning, vector control officer David Gould reports that in each of the attacks reported in Alameda this year, dogs barking triggered the raccoons' aggressive responses. Apparently sticks are the best things to ward off raccoons. But I'm thinking if we have to carry sticks when we walk our dogs at night, things have gotten to a pretty bad state." 

Posted by Kathy Meeh