The Kitsap Public Health Board is considering an update to its three-decade-old rodent control policy that would prohibit feeding wildlife in Kitsap County.
John Kiess, director of environmental health for the health district, says the update adds additional language so they can better address human caused activities that attract pests.
"One of the things we are dealing with frequently is, my neighbor does x and that brings in the raccoons, or brings in rats, or brings in birds," he told health board members during a presentation this week. "Our existing ordinance has been limited in how we can deal with that."
Regularly fed wildlife can become aggressive towards humans and spread disease, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Human and pet food are also generally harmful to wild animals.
Behaviors known to attract wildlife, like feeding, leaving out pet or livestock food, and unsecured trash or compost bins are among the topics addressed in the updated law. A carve out was made for bird feeders, if other species cannot access them.
Violators of these provisions would receive an initial notice to remedy outstanding issues. Failure could subject them to civil infraction of $513, Kiess said. Repeated violators could eventually face criminal penalties.
A public hear and vote on the update is scheduled for Oct. 7.
The unveiling of the draft ordinance this week comes about eleven months after a North Kitsap woman, who claimed to have fed raccoons near her house for decades, called 911 to report that roughly 100 of the animals had swarmed her home near Suquamish.
The now infamous incident became a brief media spectacle, picked up by outlets across the country. Kiess referenced the incident in his presentation, citing it as an extreme example of what can happen when wildlife are fed.
"Interestingly enough, we never received a complaint about this," he said. "But this is the kind of situation we do receive complaints about in other places."
Living in unincorporated Kitsap County, The woman did not appear to be in violation of any laws. Regulations on feeding wildlife which can vary by jurisdiction. Bremerton city code, for example, explicitly outlaws feeding raccoons, while state law prohibits feeding deer, elk, and moose, but does not address raccoons.
Kiess wrote in an email to the Kitsap Sun Wednesday that, to their knowledge, the proposed law would be the "only county-wide policy addressing feeding raccoons. There are other state laws prohibiting feeding wildlife, but [they] do not address raccoons specifically."
Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University.