Where the Wild Things are … for Now
A new program from the Humane Society of the United States aims to better the process of dealing with wild animals in domestic areas
By Sharon L. Peters
CTW Features
Home invasions by raccoons, rabbits, possums and other wild creatures in the nation’s capitol are being dealt with in a whole new way.
Humane Wildlife Services, a pilot program of the Humane Society of the United States, Washington, D.C., was launched in May to deal with the wild things using “the most scientifically sound” techniques that will “limit the stress and trauma” to the animals, John Griffin, director of the program, says.
Conventional wildlife removal and extermination practices often include poisoning the animal because it is a nuisance, or trapping it and resettling it miles away, a stressful ordeal that often leaves baby animals behind and puts the captured animal in a new environment to which it may not be able to adapt.
“Wild animals live behind the scenes in every urban area,” Griffin says, “and they have developed adaptive mechanisms that serve them well in that particular environment.” It’s only when they move into attics to have babies, begin regularly raiding the garbage cans or take up habitation in the garage during the cold winter months that people realize they are around and want them gone, he says.
Still, many people want the problem resolved “with solutions that don’t harm the animals,” Wayne Pacelle, HSUS executive director, says.
HSUS developed the program as a starting point – a second pilot will launch in the Cape Cod, Mass., by year’s end – that it hopes will become the standard applied by all companies across the country.
Typical “human-animal conflicts,” as the Humane Society calls them, are small animals that move into attics, chimneys and garages to escape the cold, geese taking over the golf course or beavers building dams that cause flooding in neighborhoods or over roads.
When HSUS is dispatched, they’ll remove the problem animal (and its other family members), Griffin says, and in most cases allow it to stay somewhere in the area with which it has familiarity. Putting it elsewhere could put it in high-level competition with other animals, stress it so severely it will develop an illness or even introduce rabies to a new area, he says.
Of equal importance is the task of coming up with ways to prevent other animals from entering the same home or building, or keeping the same animal from reentering, Griffin says. HSUS personnel are experts at assessing a home, garage, commercial building or foundation for possible entry points and coming up with re-entry inhibitors.
“We offer full-service to include assessment, removal and off-spring reunion if necessary, and the installation of exclusion material and one-way doors, deodorizing, prevention and follow-up calls and consultations,” Griffin says.
The cost “depends on the situation,” he says. A big factor in the fee is how much exclusion material needs to be installed. He would not give an average, but said, “We have a price list and describe them to the customer when they call to inquire.” And, according to Griffin, the pricing is “competitive.”
Griffin expects that by year’s end the program will have reached more than 200 clients. In a large number of cases people who call can be talked through the situation and no service call or fee is required, he says. If raccoons have taken up residence in the yard and are rampaging through the garbage, information is offered for tending to garbage in ways that don’t attract raccoons. “If you take the easy food source away, they’ll go away. It’s just that simple,” Griffin says.
The pilot program is being assessed, Pacelle says, and a decision will be made later this year or early in 2008 about whether to expand it to other cities.
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