I no longer think raccoons are cute.

[Faith-manor]

Raccoons here can be very destructive, and have rabies. We've had some cases of that in this county so everyone is quite wary. They definitely go after farmer's chickens, and so end up on the wrong end of a hunting gun often. We actually need the state to hire some hunters to thin them out. There are way too many because there aren't enough coyotes to hunt them. The rabies issue will get worse if the population isn't reduced. They also attack dogs and cats, sometimes small children, and the stuff they destroy....

They may look cute to people who don't normally deal with the buggers, but they are nasty and a menace. Dh had to shoot one that wouldn't stay off mil's front porch, and tried to attack her little King Charles Spaniel.

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Faith-manor
Added the wrong link

[Arcadia]

This came across my newsfeed 😂

From abc7news Chicago (video in link) https://abc7chicago.com/pets-animals/raccoon-gets-stuck-in-a-vending-machine/5468040/

“DELTONA, Fla. -- A Florida high school caught a furry burglar trying to make off with some free snacks Monday afternoon.

A raccoon was caught red-handed stuck inside a Pine Ridge High School vending machine, and police were called to free the little bandit.

The Volusia County Sheriff's offices posted pictures of the culprit on their Facebook page and wrote, "This gentleman was apprehended today while committing a burglary of a vending machine at Pine Ridge High School."”

[1GirlTwinBoys]

They're not cute at all. Vicious and will rip your face off.  My DH works with a facial plastic surgeon and I know some pretty bad stories.

[Rosie_0801]

I was watching a doco last night that said racoons have naturalised themselves in Switzerland! 

[lea1]

My dad used to tell the story of him returning from coon hunting with a baby coon in a cage (the mom was killed).  I was a very small child, who adored cats, playing outside in the yard.  My dad told me to stay away from it, that it would hurt me.   He later looked outside to see me holding it like a baby kitten.  Danny the raccoon ended up being a family pet and lived in our barn. I'm not sure how that worked because we had chickens and dogs and cats.  There were five of us kids and we would go out to the barn to play with him regularly.  We have a picture of my oldest brother holding grown up Danny on his shoulder.  I was too little to remember any of it. Not sure how long we had him.

[LMD]

2 hours ago, lea1 said:

My dad used to tell the story of him returning from coon hunting with a baby coon in a cage (the mom was killed).  I was a very small child, who adored cats, playing outside in the yard.  My dad told me to stay away from it, that it would hurt me.   He later looked outside to see me holding it like a baby kitten.  Danny the raccoon ended up being a family pet and lived in our barn. I'm not sure how that worked because we had chickens and dogs and cats.  There were five of us kids and we would go out to the barn to play with him regularly.  We have a picture of my oldest brother holding grown up Danny on his shoulder.  I was too little to remember any of it. Not sure how long we had him.

Awwww 💜

We recently read Rascal so this is lovely!

[1GirlTwinBoys]

One of the clients that came in for reconstructive surgery raised a baby raccoon for years.  Then one day out of nowhere it attacked her face.  You just never know with animals I guess.

And do y'all remember that story of the couple walking their baby girl in a stroller and a raccoon came running out and attacked her face?  It ripped her nose completely off and did other damage.  It was just so awful.  

Edited August 15, 2019 by 1GirlTwinBoys

[vonfirmath]

7 hours ago, lea1 said:

My dad used to tell the story of him returning from coon hunting with a baby coon in a cage (the mom was killed).  I was a very small child, who adored cats, playing outside in the yard.  My dad told me to stay away from it, that it would hurt me.   He later looked outside to see me holding it like a baby kitten.  Danny the raccoon ended up being a family pet and lived in our barn. I'm not sure how that worked because we had chickens and dogs and cats.  There were five of us kids and we would go out to the barn to play with him regularly.  We have a picture of my oldest brother holding grown up Danny on his shoulder.  I was too little to remember any of it. Not sure how long we had him.

 

In the Calpurnia Tate books, don't they adopt a racoon as a pet once?

[MaBelle]

11 hours ago, lea1 said:

My dad used to tell the story of him returning from coon hunting with a baby coon in a cage (the mom was killed).  I was a very small child, who adored cats, playing outside in the yard.  My dad told me to stay away from it, that it would hurt me.   He later looked outside to see me holding it like a baby kitten.  Danny the raccoon ended up being a family pet and lived in our barn. I'm not sure how that worked because we had chickens and dogs and cats.  There were five of us kids and we would go out to the barn to play with him regularly.  We have a picture of my oldest brother holding grown up Danny on his shoulder.  I was too little to remember any of it. Not sure how long we had him.

I wonder if you keep them very well fed if they will leave your chickens alone?

 

ETA-  I hate that they kill my chickens but when I see them I have such mixed feelings.  They are only doing what they are meant to do.  Don't we all?  But I do feel bad for the chickens too.   And frankly, I'm getting tired of the smell of my two survivor chicks in my bedroom.  Every  time I try to move them out to one of my coops I chicken out (LOLOLOL) and bring them back in the house for the night.

Edited August 15, 2019 by MaBelle

[shawthorne44]

On 8/6/2019 at 3:47 PM, moonflower said:

There's probably some biological drive left, after millennia of killing things out of necessity and only say a couple hundred years (if that) of not needing to, at least in men (who needed to do the majority of the killing).  

I think it's probably like a lot of modern conundrums: we developed these very valid and useful inclinations over hundreds of thousands of years, and all of a sudden (evolutionarily speaking) we don't need them.  It's like with fat and sugar: in the hunter gatherer days, if you saw something fatty and/or sugary, you ate it with relish!  You packed it on for the famine times.  Not as useful in the modern West, where we don't have famine but we do have diabetes.

it is a lot less than that.  My dad hunted with a slingshot as a kid.  Whatever he killed was the only meat they ate outside of Sunday dinner, and they were farmers. 
My FIL hunted with a rifle as a kid for the only meat the family ate.  He had to be very precise in his shooting because a wasted bullet was expensive. 

[shawthorne44]

I, too, hate raccoons.  We lost half our hens to them this summer.  I've never seen one, but based on what happened, it had to be a coon.  If I ever saw one (hasn't happened) and I was walking around with a gun or crossbow on my body (hasn't happened either), I would totally try to shoot the coon. 

It isn't just people that think they are cute, and deliberately feed them.   There are lots of people that think they are feeding feral cats, and their own outdoor cat, and are really feeding vermin like coons. 

[MaBelle]

9 minutes ago, shawthorne44 said:

I, too, hate raccoons.  We lost half our hens to them this summer.  I've never seen one, but based on what happened, it had to be a coon.  If I ever saw one (hasn't happened) and I was walking around with a gun or crossbow on my body (hasn't happened either), I would totally try to shoot the coon. 

It isn't just people that think they are cute, and deliberately feed them.   There are lots of people that think they are feeding feral cats, and their own outdoor cat, and are really feeding vermin like coons. 

I feed a feral cat and I try to feed him first thing in the morning to minimize the coons getting the food.  

We see coons almost every night.  They climb up to the roof, squeeze through our deck rails and eat the cat food we have there for our outside cats.  They are bold.