"Feeding raccoons may create undesirable situations," Washington state's Department of Fish and Wildlife warns on its website. And the situation a woman found herself in after decades of feeding the creatures was definitely a long way from desirable. The woman fled her home and called 911 last week after she was surrounded by almost 100 hungry raccoons outside her home near Poulsbo, northwest of Seattle, CBS News reports. In a video shared by the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, the woman told officers that she had been feeding raccoons near her home for 35 years and things got out of control around six weeks ago.
"The woman says the raccoons often surround her day and night demanding food," the sheriff's office said. "And she says she's been quoted prices as high as $500 per raccoon to trap and relocate them." Deputies referred the woman to Fish and Wildlife, where a spokesperson says she was put in contact with local wildlife control operators. Sheriff's office spokesperson Kevin McCarty says he's "never seen anything like this," KOMO reports. "None of the deputies have ever seen anything like this. This was new for everybody."
"Wild raccoons are not safe to toy with. People shouldn't get near them. They certainly shouldn't feed them," McCarty says. "And obviously, word got out in raccoon land, so a lot of them are showing up because they expect they're going to get a meal." Fish and Wildlife warns that "raccoons that are fed by people often lose their fear of humans and may become aggressive when not fed as expected. Artificial feeding also tends to concentrate raccoons in a small area; overcrowding can spread diseases and parasites." (More raccoons stories.)