They may be cute, but raccoons aren’t a creature you want to mess with, so when one showed up at school late Sunday night, students saw their classes cancelled.
“Families were asked to keep children home from South Kelowna Elementary this morning out of an abundance of caution after staff discovered a raccoon had entered the building,” Central Okanagan School District officials said in a press release.
“Despite attempts by conservation officers to get the animal to leave the building and trap it, the raccoon climbed up into the space between the ceiling tiles and ceiling.”
Just before lunch the raccoon had found itself in the mood for a different space and exited, with some gentle assistance from school staff, on its own accord from the school.
“Operations and custodial staff are now working to replace ceiling tiles and thoroughly clean the school to make sure it’s ready for learning, as usual, tomorrow,” the district press release said.
While a pest control service was contacted the wildlife melee was over before it started.
That said, it’s not always so easy. Bill Dowd, the founder of a pest control company with franchises across the country, said that raccoons nudging their way into human homes and buildings isn’t cute and could be quite dangerous.
“It’s a wild animal, and just like you teach your child not to pet a stray dog or cat it’s the same thing with raccoons,” Dowd, who founded Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control, said.
“They can be very aggressive if they’re cornered so there needs to be due diligence and you shouldn’t approach them.”
And, while they may not always have been in the area, populations have more than taken hold now and Dowd said his company gets just as many raccoon calls here as they do in Montreal or Toronto, proportionally.
“We as humans give them everything they need to flourish,” he said. “They are the perfect urban animal, they eat our garbage and fruit and we provide them the den sites, attics, chimneys, decks and sheds. Once they get into an area they are more destructive than rats.”
Especially this time of year, when babies are starting to be born.
“Usually we see our first baby raccoons in mid-March, and we saw first one in (Ontario) this week,” he said.
“If homeowners are experiencing any noises now, they should act promptly.”