‘Plague’ of drunken raccoons raiding homes and killing pets

Homeowners face repair bills of up to €10,000 after the animals, introduced during Nazi rule, destroy kitchens

By Jörg Luyken 15 August 2023 • 8:35pm

One raccoon managed to clamber up several storeys of an office building and had to be rescued One raccoon managed to clamber up several storeys of an office building and had to be rescued 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.

Angry hunters Last year, Berlin’s senate refused to sanction killing the raccoons, saying it would rather encourage the public to lock their bins properly.

This stance has infuriated hunters, who have complained that the species is “a real catastrophe for native wildlife”.

NABU, a nature organisation, states that raccoons hunt the young lapwings and endangered red kites.

The DJV advocates making raccoon meat a part of the national diet and using the fur for “high quality, eco-friendly clothes.”

Raccoons were first brought to Germany in the 1920s, but the first pair were released into the wild at the beginning of the Nazi era.

Urban legend long held that Hermann Göring personally ordered their release, but this version of events has recently been debunked by historians.

It now seems more likely that a local forester released them without explicit approval from the Nazis.