Sausage maker believes he's discovered the solution to Germany’s raccoon dilemma.

A butcher from northeast Germany thinks he’s found an innovative way to address the nation’s increasing raccoon issue: turning them into sausages and other meat products.

Michael Reiss, a hunter turned butcher in Kade, about 90 kilometers west of Berlin, shared with Dinogo on Wednesday that his idea was born after he sought a unique product for the Green Week international food fair in 2022.

He noticed that raccoons killed as pests were being discarded and decided to propose to local authorities the idea of processing them into food instead.

With the go-ahead, Reiss began crafting 'raccoon balls'—meatballs made from raccoon meat—which quickly became a favorite at the fair and among his customers at his butcher shop, Wildererhütte.

Before long, Reiss began selling his products online, and now offers a total of seven raccoon-based items, including raccoon salami.

“We’re the only shop in Europe offering raccoon meat,” Reiss told Dinogo.

“People travel from all over, sometimes driving as far as 150 kilometers, to visit my shop and turn it into a day trip just to try raccoon meat.”

And it's not just a quirky novelty.

"It’s been well received. I’ve never had anyone say it’s disgusting or inedible. Honestly, everyone enjoys it," said Reiss.

Those curious to try might be further encouraged by what Reiss describes as a certain sense of familiarity.

"What’s it taste like? It’s not too different from other meats you’ve had. It doesn’t have a particularly unique flavor. It’s a bit softer than other meats," he said.

"If you ate two sausages, you’d probably recognize one as raccoon. But if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t notice much difference at all," he added.

While Reiss' raccoon-based products have turned into a quirky attraction for visitors to Kade, he views them as a solution to a more serious issue.

Raccoons were introduced to Germany in the 1920s for fur farms and were first released into the wild in 1934, according to the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU).

Since then, these highly adaptable creatures have rapidly multiplied, thriving in urban areas as well as forests and grasslands.

There are now an estimated 2 million raccoons in Germany, according to the German press agency DPA, citing research from Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Originally from North America, raccoons typically weigh about 10 kilograms (22 pounds), although large males can grow up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds).

These animals now pose a threat to domestic biodiversity, particularly to reptiles and amphibians, which they prey on, according to the Senckenberg Nature Research Society in Germany.

Their impact on endangered species has led some to call for measures to control raccoon populations.

NABU, one of Germany's largest and most prominent conservation organizations, argues that hunting is not a viable solution to the problem.

While raccoons were once protected, they can now be hunted in nearly every state in Germany, though the debate on how to manage them continues.

The group suggests that instead of focusing on hunting, efforts should be made to better protect endangered species overall, reducing their vulnerability to raccoons.