How Toronto lost its war with raccoons. Badly.

One hundred years ago, raccoons were so rare in Toronto, that a mysterious creature rummaging in a garbage bin warranted a newspaper report. Today, raccoons are basically the city’s mascot. The war Toronto waged on raccoons spanned decades, but it’s abundantly clear that it’s over. The raccoons won, the people lost, and now we just try to protect our garbage and hope the mess isn’t too bad.

Amy Dempsey covered raccoons at length for The Toronto Star , she says that part of the problem for citizens dealing with raccoon infestations, is that the city has essentially abdicated all responsibility for dealing with the issue. “New York City has a rat czar and I kind of think that Toronto needs a raccoon czar,” says Dempsey.

So how did Toronto become the raccoon capital of the world?

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