It’s not a chimney, but we’ll call it home

Young raccoons released to the wilds by animal control officer

By: Katie Wagner
   After three months of nursing and feeding at the Mercer County Wildlife Center, a group of young raccoons that had been living in the chimneys of two Princeton houses have been returned to the wild.
   Last week, Princeton Health Department Animal Control Officer Mark Johnson brought the group of approximately eight raccoons to the Herrontown Woods. After a little hesitation, they seemed to embrace their new surroundings.
   Residents from the two houses had notified Mr. Johnson of their furry visitors in late March. Mr. Johnson said, he first advised the homeowners to put radios at the bottoms of their chimneys and to play the radios for 24 hours straight.
   Mr. Johnson said he receives reports of raccoons in chimneys about 15 times a year and that nine out of 10 times the music scares them away.
   These baby raccoons; however, were stubborn, so Mr. Johnson had to personally remove them from their respective chimneys.
   He next placed them outside in canisters, expecting their mothers to retrieve them, but the mothers proved to be negligent, so Mr. Johnson found someone else to take care of them.
   He brought them to Mercer County Wildlife Center, where staff there made sure the baby raccoons received vaccinations for rabies and proper nourishment.
   "Raccoons, who bring their babies to chimneys are not rabid. It’s very natural for a raccoon mother to do this. The mothers use the insides of chimneys to keep their babies warm as they would with trees," Mr. Johnson said.
   Any time Mr. Johnson removes raccoons from a chimney, the Health Department mandates the homeowners have their chimneys capped.
   Raccoons are just one of the many kinds of animals Mr. Johnson rescues and captures as Princeton’s animal control officer. To contact Mr. Johnson, call 609-924-2728.