Tuesday, May 3, 2011

band of bandits

one can't decide whether to ally with raccoons.  at times they appear to be oh so cute, and they do  resemble a "bandit" ferret.   a mixture of Zorro and my Uncle Freddie can be conjured up.
it is disturbing that a band of raccoons has gotten itself into trouble in Chicago. 

seems they've gone to making headlines like:

                Ransacking Raccoons Hit Chicago Lakefront

almost sounds like Al Capone days to hear it put that way.  "Al Capone ransacks Big Eddy's Bar"  

of course the human reaction is a bit more heavy handed.  the Parks spokeslady has said that Chicago can't have this band of marauding wild raccoons scaring off the birds, squirrels,  and other "wildlife"  like foxes and coyotes; which up till now have apparantly lived for thousands of years in quiet harmony with the raccoons.

raccoons carry roundworm, which humans don't want to catch, although not one reported case of roundworm has been discovered from this raccoon invasion!  and they are apparently getting into some boats when nobody is around.  yep, God forbid they get into a rich person's boat.  gas being so high, of course there are lots of boats tied up at docks right now, and we can't have raccoons in the boats now can we?

the raccoons aren't exactly roaming the streets of downtown Chicago either, they are "Ransacking" the Park, the Waterfront, where the birds and squirrels have all been scared off, supposedly.

the troglodyte reaction by the Parks Department sadly plays out like like Al Capone himself would have handled it.  the pesky raccoons have all been rounded up and euthanized, instead of being released into the wild. 

now, i am sure i'll hear the stories about the time the raccoon got in the attic, and had babies, and the time the raccoon got into the barn and tore up the garbage... but humans out there, remember, they were here first. 

and Chicago?  shame on you, and shame on you Parks Department. band of marauding ransacking raccoons indeed.

Orig Story By Chicago Sun-Times  posted on MSN 1 Hour Ago: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42874378/ns/us_news-life

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7 comments:

  1. Wow! So relocation wasn't an option?? Was this a heavy handed attempt to let other raccoons who might be thinking of moving to the area know they're not welcome?? Unbelievable!

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  2. OH SAMMY - put this on the heartless, cold, cruel big city side of the balance sheet for Chicago! I remember last year a New Jersey lady said the authorities allowed bears to be hunted & shot dead that had come to neighborhoods because relocation considered too expensive. This horrified me as does euthanized raccoons. My heart hurts.

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  3. Chicago has always been a tough town. I'll bet you ferrets could teach those raccoons some tricks to get around the fuzz.

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  4. Everyone sees those masks and gets worked up about possible thefts in the neighbourhood.

    The real danger posed by Raccoons is unionisation. They move in, convince the local workforce to form a union, and then strongarm management into signing one-sided agreements offering too much money for too little work.

    There's almost no danger to property with a gang of them about, but there's a severe threat to the local work ethic.

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  5. Your blog always gives me a laugh. I live in Chicago, so I'm on the lookout for those "marauding racoons" ransacking my backyard compost pile. LOL

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  6. I'll second that. Shame on Chicago. I know raccoons can cause trouble, but there are simple things to do to prevent that. We once had a raccoon family living in our chimney. A baby fell out. It was precious, if it did smell terribly of soot. We named it Stinky, doctored a small cut on its head that it got from the fall, and returned it to its mother. But we couldn't let them grow up in our chimney to expand into ransacking our house. That's what they do, you know. So we ran a work light down the chimney. The mother didn't like the light in her den and moved her family down to our woodpile. They were adorable. Chicago has no excuse for this.

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