NYPD Crime Stats Understate Growing Possum Menace

 Posted by Brian Hedden at 7:10 am  Random Chatter
Mar 102010
 

YourNabe.com reports:

Wild possums are destroying Brooklynites’ gardens, threatening small dogs and terrifying teenage girls.

OK. First of all – if a dog can be threatened by a possum, then it was never really a dog to begin with. I’m sure it turned in its Dog Card long before it crossed paths with a possum.

“Last year, while walking around the [Dyker Beach] golf course at dusk, my daughter and I bumped into one. We were so scared. We’re city girls,” said Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of Community Board 11, which covers Bensonhurst, Mapleton, Bath Beach and Gravesend.

Elias-Pavia’s 13-year-old daughter was terrified.

“My daughter screamed and I had to grab her from running into the street,” Elias-Pavia recalled.

Secondly, if approached by a wild possum, don’t panic! Calmly hand over your valuables. An iPod can be replaced. Your life cannot.

City Councilmember Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island) claims the city is responsible for the growing possum population.

About 10 years ago, “There was a rat problem in Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach so they brought the possums in to target the rats,” Recchia explained. “These possums weren’t supposed to be able to duplicate, to have babies. It turns out that they had babies. Now, they’re pretty much everywhere and they’re a problem.”

Now it sounds like something straight out of Jurassic Park. That’s funny. I’ve met Recchia once, he didn’t strike me as the Jeff Goldblum type that mumbles things like “Nature found a way!” I wonder how nature found a way?

The creatures reproduce and mature at an incredible rate.

“They have a quick pregnancy,” [Urban Park Ranger Andrew] Marsala said. “It’s almost like a bowel movement.”

Whoa, Mack. Too much information there. Let’s just stick to rabbit analogies next time, OK?

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001/ Lisanne!

    Possums are harmless. And Recchia is misinformed. Possums started showing up here about 40 years ago. He is right, however, that they are helpful in eradicating rats. They can even kill rabid ones, as their body temperature is too low to sustain the rabies virus.

    They’re freaky to look at until you get used to them. Some of them are actually kinda cute. I do not recommend them as pets, they get into everything and can get trapped in your walls if they find an opening.

  • Lauren

    I burst out laughing at handing your valuables over to the possum. This was an issue on this week’s episode of Parenthood.

  • http://www.flickr.com/paypaul Paul

    Possums aren’t pretty but I’ve never heard of a rabid possum. My worst experience of them is unfortunately seeing dead ones hung by their tails in the holes of sign posts up on Annandale Road in upstate NY.
    Raccoons are cute little devils but there’s much more of a risk you are taking by getting too close to them. Raccoons are getting much more numerous in Brooklyn.

   
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