Hotel hosts raccoon in garage

Berlin -- Officials with al Berlin hotel say they are prevented by law from relocating a raccoon that has taken up residence in the hotel's parking garage.

Managers of the 39-story Park Inn hotel said they contacted Berlin's Senate Department for Urban Development and found that hunting laws prevent wild animals from being removed from private property unless they are deemed dangerous, Der Spiegel Online reported Tuesday.

"At the moment we are just waiting to see what will happen," hotel spokeswoman Catherina Cora said. "The raccoon is not a danger to anyone and so far it has created no harm."

Derk Ehlert, a Senate Department for Urban Development wildlife expert who visited the raccoon to check on its health Sunday, told Der Spiegel the animal may have traveled to the hotel from the city's Brandenburg Gate, where two
members of a raccoon family are missing.

There are an estimated 100 to 120 family groups of raccoons in Berlin.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.