Allegheny County judge’s ruling on raccoons allows criminal case to proceed

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Raccoons are not vermin or pests, an Allegheny County judge has found, and therefore are protected by Pennsylvania’s enhanced animal cruelty laws that took effect in August.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning issued a written opinion Thursday after hearing arguments earlier in the week from a Carrick man accused of two counts of aggravated animal cruelty for allegedly drowning two raccoons on his property in a large barrel after having trapped them. The decision will now allow the case to move forward with a preliminary hearing.

William Killgallon, 68, was charged by Pittsburgh police after his neighbors complained. When officers arrived at his property on Carrick Avenue in October, they found three traps, baited with tomatoes, lunch meat, bread and peanut butter.

Mr. Killgallon’s attorney, Robert Perkins, sought dismissal of the charges, arguing that there was no crime. He told Judge Manning that raccoons should be classified as vermin or pests and therefore do not deserve protection under animal crueltylaws.

“Anyone who has had their garbage cans knocked over and rummaged through, leaving trash and rotting food strewn throughout their lawn, would agree that raccoons can be ‘noxious,’ ‘objectionable,’ ‘nuisance-[ or ‘annoying’ animals,”Mr. Perkins wrote.

But, in his opinion, Judge Manningcalled that argument “absurd.”

“Cats and dogs have been known to rummage through garbage and leave it strewn about, not only in a yard, but in kitchens and elsewhere inside,” he wrote. “No reasonable construction of the statute would include, as vermin, the golden retriever that knocks over a garbage can to get at the discarded Tbone or the fat tabby rummaging for the remnants of a tuna fish sandwich.”

Judge Manning further noted in his opinion that Pennsylvania’s agricultural code prescribes a means of destroying animals when necessary. That law specifically prohibits drowning, as well as killing an animal with chloroform, carbon monoxide gas or any kind of decompression device. Shooting or euthanasia is permitted.