Greeting cards and cartoon shows depict raccoons as cute and cuddly creatures. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case when a large raccoon attacked a Vancouver resident who was taking her two small dogs out for a walk near Stanley Park sometime in August 2012. The raccoon bit and clawed at the unfortunate woman and one of her dogs, attracting the attention of bystanders who eventually managed to scare off the aggressive little bandit.

While raccoons certainly don’t make the ideal animal companions (unlike cats and dogs) as they belong more to the wild than the city, they are typically not as ferocious as the creature who figured in the above incident. Wildlife conservation experts, however, stress the fact that raccoons will feel the need to attack if they are provoked, especially when they have offspring to protect. Whether you live in Vancouver or in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, you may need to employ wildlife control services to protect yourself and your home in cases of attacks by stray wilderness fauna like the above on your premises or within you neighborhood.

These furry creatures can create quite a mess whenever they scrabble in the trash, yet they can also turn aggressive and threaten unsuspecting people with something far worse than mere bites. Raccoons are believed to be carriers of the rabies virus and the tetanus bacteria, so a simple bite or scratch puts humans and other mammals at immediate risk for dangerous infections. Hence, as a preemptive measure, the woman was promptly brought to a hospital to receive a tetanus shot (the raccoon population in BC is said to be rabies-free).

The article also mentions that a representative from Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) greatly discourages feeding these creatures, as this will only make them fear humans less. While the SPCA rep suggests that people can shoo these furry animals away by stomping and screaming loudly, it’s still best to approach any raccoon infestation problem head-on by controlling their population. Professional wildlife control in Ottawa can play a big role in this regard.

Whenever raccoons start terrorizing people, lethal action should be regarded as a last resort. Likewise, when hiring professional animal control services, people are advised to consider companies that are affiliated with SPCA, as such operatives like Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control are bound to employ humane wildlife control processes..

Raccoons are not as cute or as harmless as pop culture makes them out to be, and it’s rather unfortunate that a Vancouver woman and her dog had to be the examples for people to learn this the hard way. These furry animals can turn violently aggressive and pose serious health risks to their victims. Fortunately, SPCA-affiliated companies like Skedaddle can step in and eliminate raccoons and other unwanted wildlife from commercial and residential premises.