Raccoon attacking people, dogs in Portland still loose

Published 11:03 am Thursday, August 24, 2023

Last month, Jordan Barbeau’s husband left their northwest Portland home to take their dogs, Rosie and Bodhi, on an evening walk. They made it only to the other side of the street before a raccoon lunged at them.

That raccoon may still be roaming the neighborhood weeks later, and 36-year-old Barbeau and others are escalating their warnings after a second raccoon attack sent a woman to the emergency room this month.

On July 16, a raccoon emerged from the bushes across the street from Barbeau’s home at NW Johnson Street and 22nd Avenue and charged at her husband and the couple’s dogs without warning, Barbeau said. The raccoon clung to Rosie, a 73-pound husky and malamute mix, dug into her chest, tore her ear and bit her face.

They contacted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Barbeau then set traps the wildlife department loaned her, near her back patio and garage.

A few weeks later, on Aug.1, a raccoon that Barbeau said she believes is the one that mauled her pets, attacked a woman walking her dog outside Barbeau’s home. Video footage shows the woman screaming for help and the dog barking wildly. The woman, who lives in the area, was bitten twice and went to the emergency room, Barbeau said.

“We heard the screaming outside, and my heart just dropped,” she said. “We went out and sure enough this raccoon was attacking this woman and her dog.”

After the attack, Barbeau spotted a pack of five raccoons on surveillance footage of her backyard. Officials said the aggressive raccoon is likely a protective mother, and that it sees the dogs as threats.

Raccoons that attack people and pets or are desensitized to humans must be euthanized, according to the wildlife department. Barbeau hired a third-party wildlife control company to help capture the animals.

But the animals were smart enough to dodge the catch-and-release traps Barbeau set up in her yard. Barbeau caught two of the younger raccoons in a different trap over the weekend.

Wildlife officials euthanized those two raccoons, which is standard practice, according to Benjamin Cate, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. They had “lost wariness” of people and pets, Cate said in an email.

It is illegal in Oregon to relocate raccoons because they can spread disease, and often don’t survive in a new environment, Cate said.

A third raccoon was found dead in the neighborhood Aug. 5, Barbeau said.

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