September 22, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 37
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Screaming raccoons pushed this Dyker man to the limit
The Brooklyn Paper
BEHIND BARS: Raccoon hunter Michael MacIntyre shows off some of the critters he’s captured in the traps he purchased after he heard local raccoons “screaming” at youngsters playing in the streets.
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del.icio.usWe tolerate them going through our garbage and roaming the streets at night, but when they start screaming at the kids, someone has to draw a line.
That someone is Michael MacIntyre, who fought back after raccoons started verbally abusing local children.
“For some reason, this year the raccoons are particularly aggressive,” said MacIntyre, who lives on 84th Street in Dyker Heights. “I had nine of them are running around, screaming and yelling and chasing local kids and I just couldn’t let that stand.”
Screaming?
“Yeah, they kind of yelp aggressively,” MacIntyre explained.
Last month, a fed up MacIntyre purchased a raccoon trap and it resulted in quick dividends — he caged two critters — but getting rid of the raccoons that proved far more difficult than catching them.
He called 311, but the dispatcher sent the police, who showed up, looked at the raccoons, and shrugged.
So instead, MacIntyre did what any raccoon-fearing local would do: contact Mr. Raccoon Fighter himself, Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge).
Gentile promptly contacted the Animal Control Office, which came by hours later to pick up the critters and deposit them in a local shelter.
But situations like this are nothing new for the councilman, who has become the local go-to-guy for raccoon problems all summer.
Last spring, Gentile began handing out supplies of “Critter Ridder,” a humane raccoon repellant — but demand quickly exceeded supply.
“We have run out,” Gentile said, “but we encourage people dealing with raccoons to purchase repellent at local hardware stores.”
As reported in The Brooklyn Paper, the garbage-eaters have been popping up in a broad belt stretching from Cobble Hill to Prospect Park and down to Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.
The cuddly (looking) critters are considered wildlife and cannot be killed (like rats and mice) unless they are obviously rabid (in such cases, the normally nocturnal beasts will be walking around during the daytime like drunks, experts said).
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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