Tricky Ohio Raccoons

By Steven Shaffer, President of A All Animal Control of South East Ohio

The most unique raccoon situation I’ve dealt with was for a homeowner who owned several cats. The home had a large enclosed porch that was set up as a playroom for the cats. There were two cat doors installed to allow the cats to come and go. One allowed access to the enclosed porch/playroom area. The other allowed access to the interior of the home. The homeowner only fed the cats in her kitchen area and never in the cat playroom. Though the homeowner had many cats, she had been noticing that they had been consuming a very large amount of cat food. This had continued for over 1 year.
Finally, the homeowner went on vacation, asking a friend to feed her cats and watch her home. The friend filled the food bowls daily. One day the friend found a huge mess in the kitchen. Drawers and cupboard doors had been torn open, and food items scattered across the floor. She cleaned up the mess and filled the bowls. This continued daily until the homeowner returned. The homeowner then contacted A All Animal Control of South East Ohio to find the culprit.
From the sign, I determined that raccoon had learned to access the home through the exterior cat door, cross the playroom, enter the second cat door and stroll down the hall to the kitchen's smorgasbord of food.
I set a trap in the playroom to catch the raccoon entering through the cat door . In three consecutive nights I caught three adult male raccoon.
To prevent this from reoccurring, the homeowner installed an electronic cat door. This new cat door required a device that had to be attached to the cat’s collar. As the cat approached the door, this device would unlock the door. The door’s manufacturer guaranteed that no animal could ever enter if it was not wearing this device.
Several years went by before I received another call from this client, experiencing the same issues with a raccoon repeatedly entering her home through the new animal proof electronic cat door. She had come downstairs one morning and caught the raccoon feeding at the cat bowls. The raccoon calmly walked down the hall and exited through the cat door into the playroom. It then exited to the outside through the electronic door. These electronic doors are only to prevent animal entry and not access, so it was easy for the raccoon to exit.
I once again setup, and immediately caught another large male raccoon.
With the supposedly animal-proof cat door, what exactly was happening?
This raccoon had figured out how to unhook the two electronically controlled latches, one located in each bottom corner of the cat door. It did this by inserting a single claw, one from each front foot, into the crack of the door, and depressing both latches simultaneously to enter. I am still amazed this raccoon figured this out. For all of your Animal Control needs contact A All Animal Control of South East Ohio at (740) 732-1080 or by sending an email to seohio@aallanimalcontrol.com