East Vancouver woman calls for city or province to step in after raccoon attacks

An East Vancouver woman is calling for authorities to take action after she and her dog were attacked by a raccoon twice in the span of a few months.

Tamara Herman, who has lived near the intersection of Victoria Drive and Adanac Street for six years, says she thinks the same juvenile raccoon attacked her 11 weeks ago and most recently on Sunday night.

In both instances, she says the raccoon rushed at her and climbed up her jacket to get at her face. Herman says she was rescued by neighbours during the first attack, after screaming for help, and she used a mini air horn to scare the animal away during the second attack. 

What frustrates Herman more than the attacks themselves is how city and provincial authorities have refused to step in to deal with the problem animals.

She says she's been directed to private pest control companies both times — something that was also the case when feral raccoons attacked two Kitsilano residents and their pets in August.

"I'm pretty terrified to go walking through my neighbourhood," she told CBC News. "It's something I have to do twice a day because we have a dog and we live here.

"I know that [the raccoons] are out there. This behaviour is just strange."

In both attacks, Herman's 11-year-old dog Pika barked at the raccoon, which was a few hundred metres from the pair. Then, Herman describes the raccoon "charging" her and attempting to scratch her face.

"It looks like a house cat. But these are wild animals. They're full of muscle," she said.

"I don't know how to defend myself — let alone somebody who is not able-bodied or elderly or a kid."

Despite changing her route after the first time she and her dog were attacked, the mother of two says there was no effect.

Both times, she talked to the City of Vancouver, who directed her to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS), who subsequently said raccoons fall outside their jurisdiction.

Herman said it shouldn't be left up to residents to deal with "strange administrative gaps" that are leading to serious safety issues.

"It seems like we really need to come up with some approach to keep the raccoons safe, people safe and their pets safe," she said.

City, province recommend exterminators

In a statement, a City of Vancouver spokesperson said the city's animal control officers are only responsible for the licensing and use of dogs and other domestic animals — and that there is no specific raccoon policy in place.

They said that when a raccoon becomes aggressive, it is often because it has been fed by humans and has developed an increased "proximity tolerance."

"While the city does not have a raccoon policy, we do have a new wildlife feeding bylaw, which prohibits the feeding of wildlife anywhere in Vancouver," the statement read, adding that the best thing to do for a wild animal is to give it space.

Raccoons are protected under the provincial Wildlife Act. A spokesperson for the BCCOS said, however, that they are only responsible for "dangerous wildlife" like bears, cougars, coyotes and wolves.

"Managing wildlife co-existence with other animals (such as deer, raccoons, squirrels, owls, etc.), is a wildlife management task and not a public safety or law enforcement function," the spokesperson said. 

"When called about raccoons, conservation officers suggest the public contact pest control companies and private trappers."

Barbara Mooney, another resident of the area, said aggressive raccoons are a municipal problem and should be dealt with by officials before a child gets seriously injured.

"Who knows what they're digging into, what diseases they're spreading," she said. "I'm an animal lover but they have no place here, in the centre of the city, in my mind."

For Herman, the advice to hire a pest control company rings hollow, especially because she doesn't know where the problem raccoon is holed up.

"I could spend hundreds of dollars, perhaps thousands, trying to be able to deal with this one raccoon and it could lead to absolutely nothing," she said.