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COURIER LIFE, D M B G EC. 21–27, 2018 27
ON THE LOOSE: Locals spotted this sick raccoon in front of
an Ocean Parkway building on Nov. 7. Stephanie Carman
RACCOONS
Continued from page 6
a raccoon at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and
E. Third Street on Nov. 25, and contacted a Parks
Department worker after noticing the animal walking
around in circles. But the local did not stick
around to see if the agency attended to the critter,
she said.
And another extremely ill raccoon showed up on
the sidewalk outside of an Ocean Parkway apartment
building between Church Avenue and Beverly
Road the evening of Nov. 7, according to a resident,
who said the animal had trouble standing and left
piles of either diarrhea, vomit, or both in its wake.
“You could tell it was in a lot of distress,” said
Stephanie Carman.
Carman’s neighbor made several 311 and 911
calls seeking aid from the city following the raccoon
sighting, which resulted in police doing one
lap of her block in a patrol car without stopping, she
said.
The next day, Carman spotted the animal in the
front courtyard of a nearby building and, assuming
it was dead, said she called the Department of Sanitation,
where workers allegedly told her the agency
would only dispose of the carcass if she ferried it to
a public sidewalk.
But the raccoon showed signs of life after she
hung up with the Sanitation Department, so Carman
said she reached out to Animal Care and Control
— where she claimed reps didn’t return her
call — before contacting 911, whose operators dispatched
another patrol car to the scene. But the
cops that arrived claimed they couldn’t fi nd the
beast, Carman said.
“The police did come, and basically said they
never saw him, although my suspicion is they didn’t
do a lot of work to try and fi nd him,” she said.
Another neighbor, however, claimed to have an
even harder time getting the city — which encourages
locals to call 311 about any sick raccoons spotted
on public or private property, and to call the
cops if an animal gets aggressive — to address the
wayward animal.
“I called 311 and they said, ‘Tough s---,’ ” said
Joselyn Muhleisen. “Basically, if we wanted a sick
raccoon removed, we needed to hire a private service
or to leave it alone.”
And Carman, who said the raccoon was gone
the morning after she asked the Sanitation Department
and police to retrieve it, blasted offi cials for
being so unconcerned about animals that she said
pose serious health risks to local humans and their
canines.
“I put in a lot of efforts on behalf of my dog, and
my neighbor’s dogs, but this is the city’s problem,”
she said. “I don’t understand how they don’t care
about a public-health crisis.”