Sure, They're Real Cute and Fuzzy, Especially When They're Young. That Is Until...

... THEY EAT THE GARDEN VEGETABLE PLANTS YOU HAVE INVESTED SO MUCH TIME, THOUGHT AND MONEY INTO AND HOPED TO EAT ONE DAY!  THEN YOU WANT TO KILL THEM ALL!

Unwelcome herbivores with no natural predators in an urban setting.

An adult groundhog can eat more than one pound of vegetation daily.

Caddyshack, anyone?  No friends of a golfer or a gardener.

There ought to be a law in Hudson against the harboring of
Marmota Monax, aka GROUNDHOGS, aka WOODCHUCKS. 
I'M SERIOUS!

Groundhogs are very intelligent rodents, and they like the quiet, preferring to burrow under or near vacant houses rather than occupied ones.  Or underneath a garage along a quiet alley with access to several nearby properties and just about anything green growing on them.  The fact that our Code Enforcement Office does little to return vacant, abandoned properties to habitability just shows they don't care about how many groundhogs are living in the city or the damage they inflict on gardens, as well as the misery the herbivores can so easily and quickly inflict on gardeners.  It's not right.  It's not smart.  And it's not necessary to be so blind about quality-of-life issues, especially for those of us trying to grow our own food.

I am almost certain that the groundhog(s) which ate my six young cabbage plants (and others) last year came from an abandoned property a few doors away that has been on Craig Haigh's questionably useful Vacant Building Registry for at least the past 5 years.  The property has an enormous, rickety wooden barn/garage that will fall over in a few years if nothing is done to save it.  If my local groundhogs are still around, they are under that house or the garage, or both.  Or just set up inside the garage, scheming to get back into my garden and my neighbors' gardens soon one night when we're all fast asleep.  

It's difficult to imagine that the property owner isn't aware of 
the family of groundhogs underneath their garage.  They should 
be concerned -- burrows can undermine the integrity of structures 
they are under.  This is where the city could and should step in,
aiding the property owner and nearby residents whose vegetation
and sanity is threatened.