NYC Raccoons Targeted In Rabies Vaccine Campaign

NEW YORK CITY — New York City's raccoons will get a healthy supplement to their normal trash diet: a rabies vaccine.

An effort to vaccinate the city's furry bandits will launch in October across the five boroughs, health officials announced.

The vaccine will be inside fish-scented baits resembling ketchup packets designed to entice the critters do what they do best — steal and eat them.

“Approximately 1.6 million baits are targeted for control of raccoon rabies in New York State during 2021, with 72,000 designated for New York City,” Laura L. Bigler, wildlife rabies vaccination program coordinator at Cornell University, said in a statement. “Annually, 9 million baits are distributed by USDA and numerous state/local cooperators in the eastern United States, with the ultimate goal of eliminating this very costly, fatal disease that impacts all mammals.”

Rabies isn't unheard of in New York City, and it poses a risk to pets and people alike.

The city's health department this year found rabies in 17 animals across the boroughs, officials said. The grim tally stood at eight raccoons and two cats from Staten Island; two raccoons, a skunk, and a cat from the Bronx; one raccoon from Manhattan; and two raccoons from Queens.

The raccoon vaccination drive will entail wildlife biologists with the United States Department of Agriculture using bait stations or tossing doses in wooded areas in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

And there's even an air component — health department workers will fly a helicopter to toss baits across wooded and marshy spots in Staten Island, as well as the Gateway National Recreation Area in Brooklyn and Queens.