Avella Wants to Round Up Raccoons, Free Them in Parks

A new bill that just passed through committee in the state Senate seeks to release raccoons into neighborhood parks.

The move is part of an effort to humanely control the raccoon population wandering throughout northeast Queens and other residential areas of the city.

Its sponsor, Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, said he introduced the bill last year after receiving calls from residents disgruntled by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which Avella says only removes rabid or dead raccoons.

His legislation would require the city to remove all raccoons that are causing a nuissance to homeowners and release them into city parks.

Parks Department Spokesman Zachary Feder said, "We’re not involved in this," when asked if the agency had any scruples about letting the critters squat on park land.

Feder said it was an issue for the Health Department, which vaccinates animals that they release.That department did not respond for comment to an inquiry as to whether releasing critters into park lands will contain the animals or abate breeding.

Local homeowners who called to complain about raccoons have been told that they are a “part of nature,” according to Avella, and that the Health Department cannot remove them. Those homeowners then have the choice of using expensive removal services or living with the hungry trespassers.

“Such a curt response is insulting to taxpaying homeowners who have been harassed by raccoon infestations and, in many cases, have experienced property damage from raccoons who clawed into their homes looking for food," said Avella.

An unidentified raccoon is the main culprit in the disembowlement of a domestic cat right in the . The perpetrator had pried the screen right off a fifth-floor apartment, .

"Moreover, even non-rabid raccoons present a danger to residents and domestic animals and present a public health danger as a result of being carriers of diseases such as canine distemper and raccoon roundworm," Avella said, adding, "Unfortunately, residents throughout this city have no protection against raccoons that have become increasingly brazen and more accustomed to human contact.”

Avella says he knows the bill isn't the complete solution to the problem, but is a step in the right direction.

Not everyone is totally sold on the idea. Joseph A. Landolfi, who says he's seen the critters hang around the dumpsters and garages of Jeffrey Gardens co-ops, believes they'll only stick to park grounds it there's a food source for them. "...more than likely, there won't be and they'll migrate back into the 'burbs," said Landolfi.