Raccoons have become widespread in Germany, and some people are trying a new way to make use of animals already being hunted: serving them as food. But the numbers suggest that raccoon dishes alone cannot control the population.
The country’s raccoon population traces back to two pairs released in the woods near Lake Edersee in 1934 and 25 animals that escaped from a fur farm in Brandenburg 11 years later. Their descendants now number almost two million, according to the information provided.
In 2025, Steffen Haaßengier, the chef at Zum Lindeneck in Weimar, added raccoon permanently to the menu. A burger costs €17.50, while a leg served with Klöße costs €25–30. A hunter supplies up to 20 animals a month, already skinned and accompanied by a certificate showing they have been tested for trichinella.
The restaurant held what was described as probably Germany’s first course dedicated solely to raccoon meat on April 18, 2026. It received around 70 applications for 20 places.
Yet demand for the meat is small compared with the scale of hunting. The German Hunting Association recorded 284,220 raccoons killed or trapped during the hunting year from April 2024 to March 2025, a record. The population did not decline, suggesting it is replenishing at least as quickly as animals are removed.
The amount of meat available is also limited. Saxony-Anhalt butcher Michael Reiß estimates that each animal yields 1.5 to 2.5 kilograms. He puts fixed costs, including trichinella testing, inspection fees and payment to the hunter, at more than €25 per animal, leaving the meat at roughly €10 to €17 per kilogram.
Even if all of the available meat could be used, the total would amount to about 570 tonnes. Haaßengier, who is vegetarian in his private life, presents serving raccoon as a way to use animals that are already being hunted to manage their numbers—not as a solution in itself. The broader idea is to raise awareness of invasive species by making use of them as food.
Sources: Xataka.