No good deed goes un-paw-nished.
A woman in Washington state who fed neighborhood raccoons for decades called 911 after coming home to find more than 100 of the fuzzy masked invaders preventing her from getting inside.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene and said the woman told them she had been feeding the animals from her Poulsbo home for 35 years without incident.
That is, until six weeks ago, when the population “exploded,” resulting in dozens of the ringtailed bandits surrounding her suburban property last week day and night “demanding food.”
The deputies were “shocked” to see so many raccoons in one place, sheriff’s office spokesperson Kevin McCarthy told 9News.
“Somehow the word got out in raccoon land, and they all showed up at her house expecting a meal,” he added.
“Nobody ever remembers being surrounded by a swarm of raccoons. This was a first.”
Fortunately, nobody was reported bitten or scratched by the animals, which are known for carrying diseases like rabies and roundworm.
The woman’s neighbors, however, were less-than-thrilled with the growing menagerie.
“I’d say it’s been about the last month or so I’ve noticed it,” Wendy Cronk, who lives nearby, told the outlet.
“I’ve had several raccoons in the yard recently. My dogs have gotten in a scuffle several times with a raccoon. I’ve even had to take one of my dogs to the vet after tussling with a raccoon. And I’ve also noticed there’s been a lot more hit raccoons up on the main road here,” she said.
“I just hope that somebody steps in and helps her take care of this problem … and hopefully she’ll quit doing it,” she lamented.
McCarty said the woman told deputies she had been in contact with a trapping organization to curtail the rapidly growing population, but she was quoted a whopping $500-a-pop to have them removed.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s office directed the homeowner to contact the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to deal with the problem.
Although arriving in startling numbers, the vast majority seem to be law-abiding.
“At this point, it’s been determined that the raccoons haven’t committed any crimes,” McCarty told the outlet.
The incident is a textbook example of why people are discouraged from feeding wild animals, McCarty said.
“It’s pretty simple: Don’t feed wild animals. When wild animals have a reliable food source, they’re going to keep coming back to it. And that’s what these raccoons did until the number of raccoons expecting a meal got out of hand.”
Although adorable, raccoons can cause serious destruction if left to their own devices.
A Brooklyn family found this out the hard way last week when a gang of the critters ran roughshod on their $1.2 million home, pooping and peeing everywhere and causing over $100,000 worth of damage — which their insurance company isn’t covering.