Rabid raccoon cases in NYC outpacing last year by 57%

A terrifying posse of rabid raccoons is invading the outer boroughs of New York City at a breakneck pace, with 20 total cases already logged across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island — a pace 57% faster than last year, troubling city data show.By Aug.20, the Big Apple recorded five cases in Brooklyn, six in Queens and a whopping nine in Staten Island — matching the total for all of 2025, the data show.Since 2022, Staten Island has recorded 26 confirmed rabies cases — the second-highest total in the city behind Queens, which has reported 39, according to data from the NYC Health Department. In the last five years, Bronx has documented 17 cases, while Brooklyn has reported seven.Despite Staten Island’s steady caseload, the borough was excluded from a recent city-led oral rabies vaccination effort targeting wildlife, distributing fish-scented bait packets containing rabies vaccine in select parks and green spaces across Brooklyn and Queens.Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said his borough’s exclusion is “playing with people’s well being,” reported SIlive.com.

The Post has reached out to Fossella for comment.Other residents commented that the critters are “constantly in my yard,” and “there are so many houses going up, they have nowhere to go.”In Manhattan — which has no reported cases of rabies in 2026 and one case from a bat in 2025 — a family of raccoons living in Central Park has become an unlikely tourist attraction, drawing crowds who film, feed and even try to touch the furry creatures.

“How cute!” oozes a comment on one such video, while another says, “That tree apartment is probably costing them $5,000 a month considering the location.”Bronx retiree Israel Ortiz, 83, has been feeding raccoons from the same bench near the American Museum of Natural History for nearly 20 years.“I’m here to take care of them,” Ortiz, who brings treats they take from his outstretched hand, told The Post.“If they had r...