Police determined that the possibly rabid raccoon's death by SUV was "undoubtedly ... the result of a breakdown in the city of Springfield’s protocol."
By Abby Patkin
No criminal charges are warranted for Springfield’s fire commissioner after he drove over a potentially rabid raccoon in February, the Massachusetts Environmental Police said this week, pinning the shocking incident on a breakdown in the city’s protocol for handling sick animals.
Fire Commissioner Bernard J. Calvi was driving a city-issued vehicle when he killed the raccoon outside the fire department’s headquarters on Feb. 21, according to an environmental police report issued this week. The incident attracted public outcry, local media coverage, and outrage from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
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“Although the perception and the optics of the Commissioner’s actions appear inconsistent with common euthanasia practices by trained personnel, the Commissioner acted in a professional capacity, in the interest of public safety with the means available to him at that time,” environmental police determined. “There was no intent by him [to] inflict or cause undue suffering.”
Report: Officials received calls about sick or injured raccoon days prior
In the days leading up to the incident outside the fire station, officials received several calls from members of the public about a raccoon acting bizarrely in the same area, according to the report.
“After review of the Springfield police call logs, it is readily apparent that a raccoon in the same area was reported multiple times as being sick, injured, or rabid,” the report stated. In at least two of those instances, the city’s Department of Health and Human Services was reportedly notified.
Officials’ failure to act on those earlier calls led to Calvi’s actions on Feb. 21, environmental police asserted.
“This situation could have been avoided had the other parties interceded and acted as empowered and or contracted to remove and or euthanize the raccoon,” the report said.
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Instead, Calvi told investigators he saw the raccoon frothing at the mouth and wandering in circles near the fire station and tried to corral the animal in a fenced courtyard using his SUV.
Previously:
- Some questioning Springfield fire chief’s decision to run over potentially rabid raccoon with his SUV
According to the report, he asked the Springfield Police Department to dispatch the raccoon as a public safety threat, concerned about the possibly rabid animal wandering away in an area with heavy foot traffic.
However, Calvi reportedly learned that the police officers who responded to the scene were not given authorization to kill the raccoon, and a problem animal control agent was unable to provide an estimated time of arrival.
When the raccoon allegedly began walking toward a nearby woman, Calvi struck and killed the animal with his SUV, according to the report.
“As unorthodox the method was perceived, Mr. Calvi’s actions were in the best interest of public safety,” environmental police determined. Police also noted that the blunt force trauma the raccoon sustained “likely caused minimal suffering.”
Ultimately, environmental police said the raccoon may have been rabid, distempered, injured, or habituated as a pet.
“In all cases, the course of action would be to remove that animal and dispatch it in the interest of public safety and then have it tested if there was a suspected exposure to the public,” according to the report.
Was the raccoon rabid, after all?
Whether the raccoon was actually rabid will remain a mystery after a Department of Public Works staffer disposed of the animal in a wooded area of Forest Park. While a DPW supervisor allegedly told investigators that the department regularly disposes of deceased wildlife in wooded areas, an animal’s brain must be kept intact to be tested for rabies.
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Because the raccoon was left in the woods for an extended period of time before investigators tracked it down, its brain could not be tested, according to the report.
And while Calvi was educated on contacting environmental police and the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in any future matters involving wild animals, the report concluded that his actions on Feb. 21 did not warrant criminal charges.
“Commissioner Calvi’s actions undoubtedly were the result of a breakdown in the city of Springfield’s protocol for handling sick and injured animals,” environmental police said.
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