‘Plague’ of drunken raccoons cause havoc in Germany as homeowners face repair bills of up to €10,000

5 comments

1. **From The Telegraph’s Jörg Luyken:**

   A “plague” of invasive raccoons with a taste for German beer is causing havoc by raiding homes and killing treasured pets.

   Homeowners have faced repair bills of up to €10,000 after returning from holiday and finding that the animals have destroyed their kitchens.

   Germany’s National Hunting Association (DJV) says that it killed a record 200,000 raccoons last year in an attempt to control the population, up from less than 10,000 two decades ago.

   Scientists say that the growth is almost exponential for an “unbelievably adaptable animal” and that attempts to control it through hunting have had the adverse effect of increasing its already prodigious birth rate.

   “These animals, which are so cute at first sight, have become a plague in some parts of the country,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a daily German newspaper, said.

   It added: “But the problem can no longer be eradicated, so we have to learn to live with them. In less than a century this species has made Germany its home. That’s a story of both success and suffering.”

   **Eating pets and drinking beer**

   Local media reports suggest that the animals, introduced during the Nazi rule, have been eating pet bunny rabbits and fish. Meanwhile, some claim that they have also been drinking beer during their rampages.

   Berthold Langenhorst, of the nature organisation Nabu, says that “raccoons are funny and clever… and they like beer”. He describes how he recently watched them knocking beer bottles over at a lake side to get at the liquid inside.

   An estimated 1,000 raccoons reside in Berlin, where they have been found living in state high schools, boarding buses and, increasingly, in allotment gardens.

   At one of the office buildings used by MPs in central Berlin earlier this summer, a raccoon managed to clamber up several storeys and had to be rescued.

   In a video posted to social media by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, the animal could be seen escaping the clutches of one animal rescue worker, and then another, as it teetered along a narrow steel girding.

   The visit was “a welcome surprise… unfortunately the little raccoon could not find his way back alone, so we gave him a little help,” the Bundestag stated.

   **Continue reading ⤵️**

   [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/15/drunken-raccoons-cause-havoc-in-germany-by-raiding-homes/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/15/drunken-raccoons-cause-havoc-in-germany-by-raiding-homes/)

2. Based raccoons. Mess those nasty no-furs up!

3. Soo…nazi raccoons?

4. And this is why you don’t allow invasive species as pets.

5. The “up to” in the headline makes it sound like the raccoons have reached a gentleman’s agreement to put a cap on how much damage they will do.