updated 3:32 p.m. ET June 8, 2004

TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa Bay Devil Rays managing partner Vince Naimoli has more than Tigers and Blue Jays bothering him these days. Instead, he’s getting rattled by a real-life raccoon.

Naimoli recently sent an angry letter to Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean to complain about the critter and what he deems unequal treatment.

“What I’d like to know is why — when I reportedly pay the highest or one of the highest property taxes in Hillsborough County and [am] probably one of the largest supporters (mostly anonymous) of charities in our area — I can’t get equal treatment on Raccoon Rabies Protection,” he wrote.

Naimoli said a “pesky raccoon was intimidating” his wife and daughter May 21, as it has many times.

“I do not know if it had rabies or not but I don’t want to try and find out,” he wrote.

Naimoli wants Avila, his upscale neighborhood north of Tampa, included in a program that drops edible rabies vaccinations for raccoons. The director of the Avila Property Owners Association Inc. also has written to the county to ask to participate in the program.

Bill Armstrong, head of animal services, replied to both by saying this year’s supply of bait is gone but that he would forward their request to the program manager.

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