(CNN) - In the ongoing battle between a pack of particularly ambitious raccoons and the White House groundskeepers, the raccoons appear to be winning.
According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, no raccoons have been caught on the White House grounds since the band of intruders were first spotted roaming the premises earlier this month.
The National Parks service set up several traps around the White House lawn earlier this week after determining one large raccoon and several smaller ones were causing trouble around the West Wing and the Executive Mansion.
If and when the raccoons are caught they will be released into the wild, the National Park Service has said.
But the traps, which include peanut butter and apples as bait, have yet to allure any of the pesky mammals.
"No raccoons that I know of have been caught or disbursed into other places in Washington," said Gibbs.
The White House press secretary also said he would be of little use in the hunt: "There are a few that roam in my backyard, so I don't have any particular tips."
From CNN Politics
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Peanut butter?! That stuff is poison.
Just call in Palin and let her shoot them from a helicopter.
the tainted peanut butter?
can they vote on the stimulus package?
Hopefully the WH is killing two birds with one stone by using salmonella-laced peanut butter in the traps!
I wish this story hadn't been published. I can only imagine the racist comments being posted on message boards all over the web.
THEY PUT PEANUT BUTTER IN THE TRAPS!?!?!?! ARE THEY TRYING TO POISON THE POOR THINGS????
First he had to ge rid of the rotten snakes in the Bush Administration now it is raccoons. I would like to change my answer on what kind of dog to get. Make it a pack of hound dogs.
Raccoons are smart, Washington insiders are not. I know give them a bailout! And they will leave Washington just like everyone else.
Let the conspiracy theories begin.. it was the repubs that sent the racoons loose to cause havoc with the democratic dogs! JK
They're going about this all wrong. Just send Sarah Palin in a helicopter over the white house grounds.. the racoon problem will be taken care of quick
cue the racist republicans in 3 2 1
With the right Peanut Butter as bait, the racoon problem could be solved pretty quickly.
The economy is tanking, union jobs are dissolving, and you just gave us the news equivalent of Caddyshack.
Bravo...
Don't even start...
awwww!
Let 'em stay I say.
And it's always nice to see an animal outsmarting a human being.
"coons?"
LOL, shame on you CNN!
Try using marshmallows–I've heard that racoons can't resist them.
That being said, I just have to root for the racoons–they are cute little buggers.
Hope that bait of peanut butter doesn't do them in with salmonella!
THAT IS HILLARIOUS. THEY WANT A BAILOUT TOO.
The Secret Sevice might want to scan them for "bugs"...
raccoons are smart little buggers, I hope they are fully talking to animal services people, if you don't take them far enough way they will just walk right back... adn pull shingles off your roof.
this will be one good meat during this hard economic times that GW Dubya created for Pain-Lin, Joe the Plumber and those hillibily right-wing republiklans bigots!!!!!
The racial tone is very clear. It's sad that someone probably released the racoons onto the grounds.
They are beautiful animals.
All of a sudden there's a raccoon problem, yeah right
raccoons are COOL!!! we used to have them along with deer, goundhogs, turkeys and pheasant come into our yard when we lived outside of Pittsburgh years ago and we enjoyed watching them very much.
besides, raccoons are probably smarter than the average Washington politician