Once raccoons were brought to Germany because they were needed. Today many people wish them gone. Plenty of horror stories circulate. This film explains what can be believed.
Allegedly raccoons feed on anything and anyone. In a way that is true. They are omnivores. But most of the stories about their gluttony belong in the realm of myth. For example the anecdote of a hunter, who claimed he saw a pack of raccoons take down a roe deer. Science has proved those cock-and-bull stories wrong. But the rumors die hard.
Today approximately half a million raccoons are living in Germany. Even in major cities like Kassel they make trouble. It all started in the first half of the last century with fur farms. Since fur produced in captivity was of lesser quality than fur from the wild, farmer Rolf Haag and verderer Baron Sittich of Berlepsch decided to release two gestate pairs into the forest. According to contemporary witnesses, soldiers from the Wehrmacht formed a guard of honor and a band played the national anthem….