National Post

Living with raccoons
Columnist Robert Fulford wrote an essay about the ubiquity of living with raccoons. Due to recent news, we’ve republished the essay:

Maple Leafs, schmaple leafs. The one true unifier in this city is that we all cohabit with raccoons, those masked bandits who rummage through our garbage, invade our houses, terrorize our beloved pets and scream at each other to no end. But Robert Fulford writes that they are as much citizens of this city as we are. In fact, he agrees with Tyler Brule that we should adopt them as our official animal. When was the last time you saw a beaver or bear — both on Toronto’s coat of arms — in the city anyhow?

Anyone considering raccoons should first cast aside the notion that they are a foreign species sent by a vengeful god to plague us. They are not. They are Torontonians. True, they don’t pay taxes, send their young to our public schools or use our health services. But they grow in number as the city grows, they change as the city changes and they take advantage of municipal facilities with eager ingenuity. Their enemies call them greedy, a term certain outlanders have been known to apply to Toronto humans.