A group of raccoons have become unlikely celebrities in the city of Galveston.
Videos widely shared on social media show the critters hanging out on rocks and even eating food provided by locals and tourists.
However, as popular as they are with tourists, these raccoons are causing some major issues for city officials.
Following reports that a child had been bitten, the city began a relocation program to remove the raccoons from the city.
City spokesman Kurt Koopmann told Chron, "There's a lot of them out there and we're just trying to get a handle on [the numbers], and then also to just get people to accept that it's not a good idea.
"Animals can quickly become dependent on human feeding, and that affects their normal foraging for food, and it can cause the animals to become less active."
While the city does not currently have an ordinance that prohibits feeding wild animals, Koopmann said that officials have recently discussed posting signs discouraging people from feeding the East End raccoons.
"A perfectly healthy wild animal is capable of foraging for their own food," he said. "They don't necessarily need human food. French fries, white bread, things like that, they're really not that great for us, and they're not good for wild animals either."
He continued saying, "We realize they're cute, and everyone feeding them believes they're doing something good, but they actually could [be] ultimately contributing to the suffering of animals if they become so dependent on human food."
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