If the full Council approves the bill, Philadelphia will be one of a few cities with an official procedure to capture raccoons, officials said.
In Philadelphia, raccoons are the number-one carriers of rabies, followed by feral cats.
A raccoon explosion in Toronto has generated controversy after a frustrated resident allegedly hit a baby raccoon with a shovel. Toronto's policy is largely to encourage the use of raccoon-proof garbage cans.
New Yorkers, too, are fed up with the varmints. Rabid raccoons have been found in Central Park, and the city's Health Department in 2009 and 2010 conducted short-term programs to trap, vaccinate, ear tag and release raccoons. New York health officials reported a decrease in rabid raccoons.
But in Pennsylvania, unlike in New York, trapped raccoons cannot be released, so the proposed city law would result in an impractical and costly process, said Susan Cosby, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania SPCA.
"In the case of raccoons, they would have to be euthanized" after being trapped because of their high rate of carrying rabies.
Trapping is essentially "a death sentence" for raccoons, Cosby said. It also requires monitoring of a trap because an unattended animal can die inside one.
The SPCA oversees the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association, which deals with wild animals in the city, Cosby said.
"There really and truly are not enough resources" to trap raccoons, Cosby said from her office on Erie Avenue. "One reason is we already have a huge job with domestic animals . . . that are coming into the shelter at a high rate."
