An early morning stroll on garbage day in our leafy east-end neighbourhood is not a pretty sight. There are always a few tipped over green bins, the contents strewn across the sidewalk, leftovers from a midnight feast by marauding raccoons. The bins that survived the night sport a variety of straps, chains, hooks, wires and bungee cords to keep the critters at bay - a nod to the ingenuity of residents fed up with scooping up too many disgusting messes from the sidewalk.

The bins, introduced in downtown Toronto five years ago, were supposed to be raccoon proof, but that turned out to be an empty promise.

Learn more about raccoons or read the full article.