When Barry Rothfuss set out from his home in Peekskill, N.Y., for a little road trip last month, he didn’t pack light. In the back of his bright yellow, 10-wheel Ryder moving van, rented for the occasion, were sacks of dog food, piles of lumber, bottles of disinfectant-and 37 raccoons.
Rothfuss, 32, is a licensed wildlife “rehabilitator” whose job includes preparing injured or abandoned animals to return to the wild. When the rabies outbreak that’s sweeping up the East Coast reached suburban Westchester County last month, Rothfuss was confident his group of rescued raccoons were healthy. After all, he had raised them from babyhood in his mother’s living room and, he insists, they had never been outdoors. But then he panicked; a regional official of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, he claims, told him the animals would have to be destroyed (the DEC says it never issued such an ultimatum). It was, he decided on April 16, time to take the raccoons and run.
The saga of Rothfuss’s flight with his furry, vocal, aromatic companions is a tale of fear and passion, of confusion and frustration. Although he has inoculated them with the rabies vaccine used to protect dogs, the DEC says the canine vaccine has never been proven effective in raccoons. The agency maintains that some members of the Rothfuss menagerie may be infected because rabies is present in Westchester, where they have been living. Concerned for the survival of his flock, Rothfuss headed for upstate Tioga County, where rabies has not yet penetrated. His plan was to reintroduce the raccoons gradually into the wild, with the help of his girlfriend, Pam Novack (who is traveling with him), and a statewide network of sympathetic supporters. But when DEC officials in Tioga County ordered Rothfuss not to release the animals, he was convinced again that they were in imminent danger-and slipped away with them in the middle of the night.
Rothfuss spoke to NEWSWEEK last week by telephone from his hiding place at one of the “safe houses” on his route. “We’re seared and we’re tired,” he says. “We’re never in any one place for long, and we’ve changed vehicles seven times.” So far, Rothfuss has managed to elude state and county officials, but he promises to show up for a May 29 hearing in Tioga. He will face two misdemeanor charges: violating the terms of his state rehabilitator’s license (which has been revoked) by transporting the animals beyond a 10-mile radius and disobeying an order to remain in Tioga County.
Rothfuss says he has released more than half of his raccoons into the wild. (Some still aren’t ready for a complete break, so various supporters along the animal-protectionist underground railroad put out food and water.) “It’s a little depressing,” he admits, “because you never know what their fate is once they’re gone and you do get attached to them.” He has named all the raccoons, including Rocky I, II, III and IV-rescued as babies from the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown, N.Y., after an exterminator had destroyed their mother. Others in the group were brought to him by hunters who had shot their mother but didn’t have the heart to kill the young. Rothfuss always keeps the litters intact when he releases them.
State officials say Rothfuss has misstated their position on his animals’ right to life and liberty. “He could have released them in Westchester,” says DEC spokesman Ed Feldman, because the state permits raccoons to be released within the county of their rehabilitation-barring any clear-cut evidence of rabies. But introducing the animals to rabies-free Tioga County, he explains, posed a potential-though smallrisk to humans. “I believe [Rothfuss] is sincere but misguided,” says Feldman. “He has acted irresponsibly. How can he be sure the raccoons don’t have rabies?”
Everyone involved hopes that Rothfuss is right. If his animals aren’t rabid, they are not dangerous. If he’s wrong, Rothfuss will be New York’s Typhoid Barry. But he doesn’t have time for doubts now. There’s another safe house up the road, another pair of animals to bid farewell to. A life on the lam is no way for a raccoon to live.
