British Columbia residents warned about aggressive gangs of raccoons

July 21, 2011 – CANADA – Pet owners in Richmond, B.C., are locking their doors after a gang of raccoons made off with a family cat — the second such attack this month. Richard Thibeault says his 17-year-old Siamese cat, Kokanee, was cornered by two raccoons in his driveway Sunday morning and dragged away screaming. He says his wife, Wendy, was woken up around 5:30 a.m. by the fracas and ran outside to see Kokanee being attacked under the family’s white GMC Jimmy. She tried to fend off the aggressors with a garden hose, but to no avail. The attack on Kokanee comes just two weeks after another family cat was killed and eaten by four raccoons not far from where the Thibeaults live. Sandra Nixon says it was about 11 p.m. on July 3 when neighbours frantically alerted her and husband Bryn that a pack of raccoons was in the midst of attacking their 14-year-old feline, Arvo, down the street. “The neighbors initially scared the raccoons away, but when they came to get us, the raccoons returned,” Nixon told the Star. She and her husband ran out in an attempt to stop the onslaught, but it was too late. “It was pretty horrifying. They were all over him. There was nothing left. They actually backed away with what was left of him in their mouths.” Apart from some tufts of fur, not a trace of Arvo has been found. “When we checked the scene out the next day, it looked like … Arvo was trying to make it back to the house,” Nixon lamented. “Unfortunately, it looks like he was too badly injured by the time he made it back to just outside his yard, so was unable to jump up onto the fence.” City wildlife experts say raccoons and cats occasionally spar over territory, but it’s rare that raccoons will hunt down a large animal to eat. “It’s breeding season and there are a lot more nests around,” said Yolanda Brooks, a spokeswoman for the Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. “As a result, raccoons are a lot more territorial than they normally would be at other times of year. If a cat is outside and left to roam and it finds a nest, it can be in trouble.”Raccoons, as omnivores, will eat pretty much anything they can get their paws on. –The Star

contribution GMW