Cleveland is stepping up its response to backyard wildlife complaints with a new citywide trapping contract, and some residents dealing with property damage may also get repairs at no cost.
The effort targets some of the city's most familiar wild visitors, including groundhogs, raccoons, skunks, and other animals that have become a source of tension.
What's happening?
Under the $200,000 program, Cleveland will have Wellington-based Freeman Nuisance Animal Removal and Remedy handle trapping across the city, according to Signal Cleveland.
At city council budget hearings, chief animal control officer Bruce Campbell said the contractor will remove animals such as groundhogs, raccoons, and skunks and euthanize them as permitted under Ohio law.
He also said Freeman Nuisance Animal Removal and Remedy will fix wildlife-related damage on residents' properties at no cost to them.
The city trapped 1,711 wild animals last year.
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"This is a big issue with council, the groundhogs, the skunks, and all the other critters that are out there," safety committee chair and Collinwood gardener Michael Polensek said, according to Signal Cleveland.
This year, the contractor will be responsible for checking the traps instead of residents doing that themselves.
Why does it matter?
For many homeowners, nuisance wildlife is more than an irritation. Burrowing animals can damage yards, gardens, and even structures, while raccoons and skunks can create sanitation and safety concerns.
"We don't want a child to go out there and see, look at the pretty kitty in a trap, and it's a raccoon or groundhog that takes their finger off," Campbell said, per Signal Cleveland.
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As development expands and natural habitat is replaced or fragmented, wildlife often adjusts by moving into human-dominated spaces where food, shelter, and other resources are easier to find, including gardens, sheds, and crawl spaces.
A BBC explainer noted that many human-animal conflicts are tied to the ways people alter landscapes and the resulting increases in contact with wild species.
In many cases, wildlife is not so much invading neighborhoods as adapting to the areas humans have created.
What's being done?
Cleveland's plan turns both trapping and related work over to an outside company.
Council President Blaine Griffin said seniors have been "terrorized" by wildlife.
"I tell people, the only thing I haven't seen in my back yard is a bear, and I'm waiting for that one," Polensek said, per Signal Cleveland.
Griffin, meanwhile, joked: "The coyotes are a natural predator to the groundhogs. I'm so fed up with groundhogs that I was ready to insert a whole pack of coyotes into the neighborhood."
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