A growing raccoon population in Portage County leads to issues
The growing population of raccoons has caused a few issues in several parts of Portage County including Kent and Ravenna.
West Branch State Park in Ravenna has attempted to employ hunters to try to dissolve its raccoon problem.
The campground area was previously known as the parks none hunting area.
“They have a no hunting zone up there, “said Portage County Ohio Wildlife Officer, Marino Pellegrini. “It’s basically around the entire area where the State Park is. I know in past years they have had raccoon Issues over there with campers and things like that.”
The park held a lottery to allow two hunters to pursue raccoons within the campground during the winter closing season.
“They decided this year to do a very limited hunting program when the majority of the park is closed to the public,” Pellegrini said. “There is actually nobody camping in the areas where they opened it up to hunting over there.”
He said the program launched in mid-November.
“It will take probably a little bit of time and after the summer to see what the different changes are,” Pellegrini said. “This is the first year they have done it in the campground.”
Pellegrini says allowing the hunting program will make the campground safe for campers especially when it comes to sick raccoons and their close proximity to humans.
“The biggest risk you worry about with raccoons is they are probably one of the most diseased animals we have in Ohio,” Pellegrini said. “They carry the most kinds of diseases and bugs and viruses and things like that.”
Raccoons are often carrier’s of two major diseases.
“The two bigger ones you hear about are distemper and rabies,” Pellegrino said. “This occurs obviously when you have more of a dense population of raccoons whether it be in an urban city environment.”
As far as the City of Ravenna, the problem is not as prevalent according to Ravenna City Council President, Joe Bica.
“There haven’t been any issues in some time, Bica said.” “The Portage County health department… they did rabies bating for the raccoon population a number of years ago because the population was larger and they were becoming more urbanized.”
Since the bating, Bica says the presence of nuisance animals have not been a big issue within the city of Ravenna.
“The health department dropped a bate and it was basically a rabies vaccination for the animals that were the bate and they were really targeting the raccoon population,” Bica said.
Although the health department bated parts of Portage County some years ago, some residents of Kent are still noticing the presence of nuisance animals such as raccoons.
“We get too many raccoons, you know they are dangerous,” said John Kuhar, Ward four of Kent City Council. “I see them in the daytime and it’s just not a good thing. It’s getting to a point where they are becoming very overpopulated.”
Kuhar has a lot of experiences with many nuisance animals around two of his Kent properties and his family’s home.
Raccoons are vicious little animals,” Kuhar said, “but if you go around like my mom’s house before she passed, they chewed their way into the attic. We had a trapper come down and they ended up getting thirteen raccoons out of the attic.”
Kuhar said at a city council meeting, he proposed what he believes to be the solution to the problem.
“We have animal control officers in Kent,” Kuhar said. “I proposed that they pass a state test for licensing so that they can trap and eliminate some of these animals for the residents.”
Kuhar said the City employs an outside trapper for nuisance animal situations. He says this has caused rates to increase. Previously Kent residents could call an animal control officer to have animals removed for $25. Kuhar believes a decreased rate will result in more residents calling for animal removal.
“Instead of raising the rates so people don’t want to call… keep the rates the change and license our people, Kuhar said. “It’s like a two-page test to get licensed. It’s no big brainstorm.”
“We average about four to six raccoons a year that we have removed on our property,” Kuhar said.
Chris Smith, owner of Smith Wildlife Services says if a raccoon is spotted in a house or attic it should be removed immediately. His company’s wildlife removal services Portage, Summit, and Stark Counties.
“It seems to be even throughout Northeast Ohio,” Smith said.” Some neighborhoods typically have animals that are more prone to break into homes because it’s a learned behavior. If a raccoon is born in a house, then it is more prone to seek out a house when it has its own litter.”
Smith says he believes the raccoons are on the increase because of adaptation
“We keep moving more and more on their habitat,” Smith said. “We keep building and developing areas, and their natural habitat is diminishing. And they are adapting to live with us. They seem to be doing well and they do seem to be on the increase.”
As a long time resident of Kent, Kuhar said he hasn’t seen as many raccoons as he has in recent years.
“I’m a resident of Kent for 70 years,” Kuhar said. “You would hardly ever see wild animals in the city. I have a house on South Water Street where there are groundhogs that burrow under the sheds. The same thing with the raccoons, they are just everywhere. I grew up in this town. We had a few, but not like today.”
He agrees with Smith and believes urbanization is also linked to the issue.
“The cities are growing, and the rural areas are shrinking,” Kuhar said. “And then you take into consideration that people used to trap raccoons and sell the hide, and that’s becoming unpopular.”
Kuhar believes that the City should come up with a plan to reduce the population of nuisance animals.
“I think the city should step forward and try to reduce the possum and the groundhog and the raccoon population within the city, Kuhar said. “The black squirrels are bad enough and they are protected.”
In some parts of Portage County the Raccoon population has caused some problems. Learn more in my upcoming story. #Jmcrpp
— Faith Riggs (@faith_riggs) November 13, 2018