Dogs & Raccoons - San Francisco Animal Care and Control

Dogs & Raccoons

Cats and wildlife ignore each other, except if a cat finds a baby bird or "bite-sized" mammal. Most dogs, however, love to chase small animals. The greatest chance of a wildlife encounter with dogs is at night. Walking dogs on a leash at night and making some noise while walking is a great way to avoid encounters between dogs and wildlife at night. A jingling tag or other "noise maker" on a leash will alert wildlife to the approach of the dogs and give them a chance to get away.

Making noise and then waiting a few seconds before letting dogs out into a yard at night is another good way to avoid encounters between dogs and wildlife. This gives any animal that might be passing through the yard at that moment, a few seconds head start to get out of the yard.

Raccoons take a running leap and get up and over a fence when they hear noise in a yard that smells of dog. Turning on a light does not signify danger. Clapping your hands is a more effective way to alert wildlife that a dog is on the way into the yard at night.

Raccoons patrol all of our yards at night, foraging for rodents. They have a couple-of-mile home territory and sleep where they end up at the end of the night, in tall trees, as far from people and dogs as possible. All wildlife populations are regulated naturally by the amount of food and habitat available.

Native animals are differentiated from domesticated animals by their ability to survive without human assistance and should be kept wild by allowing them to forage naturally. Wildlife should not be fed and all garbage should be put into cans, not left on sidewalks to create a hazard for dog and wildlife encounters.

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For more information about why trapping and relocating is not an option:



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