Find a more appropriate way to become an environmental steward.
Raccoons are a very successful opportunistic species and are not endangered. They have no predators other than man, and live successfully in more than 40 states in an astounding variety of habitats.
A large population of well-fed and breeding raccoons will encroach on and crowd out the habitat of other species. Your time and effort may be better spent dedicated to restoring habitat to species that are actually in peril in your very backyard. The state of Wisconsin has several shrews, bats, voles, and squirrels and over 100 species of bird that are in need of protection. There are far better ways to be a steward of the environment than spending your time and resources domesticating yet another species which thankyouverymuch does not need your help to thrive. Here is the a link that shows the endangered species in Wisconsin. Please take note that Raccoon is not listed.
Keep feeding them, and Mama Raccoon will recognize a plentiful supply of resources and produce even more young. How many raccoons can you support? What happens if you move? What happens if you die? What happens when your neighbor Bob sees more than 20 raccoons tearing apart his yard at night, recognizes the masked crew as an infestation, and decides to poison your pseudo-pets with antifreeze or some other merciless toxin?
5 million cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters each year. Humans cannot care for the pets we already have; why would you attempt to domesticate yet another species? Imagine how cute the little masked bandits will look behind bars once we have introduced yet another dependent species to our households.
Bobby Junior next door finds your pet raccoon begging next door, and reaches out to pet him. Ethically, the responsibility of little Bobby’s stitches and painful rabies shots will lie with you.
This pitting brought to you by the letter E, which stands for ecosystem, which needs to be examined and protected in its entirety and not limited to the cute wittle animals.
Also brought to you by a treehugging, earthloving, vegetarian, gardening liberal granola eating naturegirl who also hates to see anything killed unnecessarily. But if you keep feeding the fucking raccoons, it will be necessary to kill them.
Find a more appropriate way to become an environmental steward.
Raccoons are a very successful opportunistic species and are **not ** endangered. They have very few predators other than man, and live successfully in more than 40 states in an astounding variety of habitats.
A large population of well-fed and breeding raccoons will encroach on and crowd out the habitat of other species. Your time and effort may be better spent dedicated to restoring habitat to species that are actually in peril in your very backyard. The state of Wisconsin has several shrews, bats, voles, and squirrels and over 100 species of bird that are in need of protection. There are far better ways to be a steward of the environment than spending your time and resources domesticating yet another species which thankyouverymuch does not need your help to thrive. Here is the a link that shows the endangered species in Wisconsin. Please take note that Raccoon is not listed.
Keep feeding them, and Mama Raccoon will recognize a plentiful supply of resources and produce even more young. How many raccoons can you support? What happens if you move? What happens if you die? What happens when your neighbor Bob sees more than 20 raccoons tearing apart his yard at night, recognizes the masked crew as an infestation, and decides to poison your pseudo-pets with antifreeze or some other merciless toxin?
5 million cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters each year. Humans cannot care for the pets we already have; why would you attempt to domesticate yet another species? Imagine how cute the little masked bandits will look behind bars once we have introduced yet another dependent species to our households.
Bobby Junior next door finds your pet raccoon begging next door, and reaches out to pet him. Ethically, the responsibility of little Bobby’s stitches and painful rabies shots will lie with you.
This pitting brought to you by the letter E, which stands for ecosystem, which needs to be examined and protected in its entirety and not limited to the cute wittle animals.
Also brought to you by a treehugging, earthloving, vegetarian, gardening liberal granola eating naturegirl who also hates to see anything killed unnecessarily. But if you keep feeding the fucking raccoons, it will be necessary to kill them.
Try to explain to the neighborhood alligators that they are not natural predators of raccoons. They will not agree and will continue to eat each and every raccoon they can.
Other than that, I got no problems with your position paper.
I was bitten because her kits (Cubs? What do yo call them?) were stealing cat food and she began an altercation with my cat and her kittens. Things could have gotten ugly.
Had I known how painless the shots were, I’d have taken them instead of shooting Mom.
I’m sure it is heard to resist feeding them, but despite the problem being people and our animals, I too advise one not to feed them, at least on purpose.
I hear ya, Beau. It’s that little Hand Thang that makes them so cute, begging. My Dad used to love them , coming up to the house and all standing up with hands outstretched, coming for the dogfood he’d supply, until, in Alabama, there was an amphitheatre full, every night, begging.
Raccoons are cute, with their little masked faces and curious demeanor, but, with Big Ass Teeth, and, will bite, and are a rabies vector. Don’t encourage them. Raccoons get so easily anthromorphized, to their detriment, as Beaucarnea says.
Not mentioned in the OP, but very important; Raccoons are a Rabies vector species, so encouraging them to live among your domestic animals is a hazard.
I, another hate-to-denigrate a critter person, who, at one level, appreciates Coons, and Coyotes, for being able to thrive in the atmosphere humans have created, sees the need to not outright encourage that. Let them be wild and survive in their own right.
If they were endangered, it would be even more important for humans to not feed them. Animals that are fed by humans learn to associate humans with food, and will approach humans looking for said food. This can be a real problem if the humans are in cars that can hit and kill an animal. A number of the wild ponies of Assateague Island die that way every year. That behavior can also be a problem if the animals themselves can be dangerous to humans (such as bears).
If you’re feeding an animal that is an important vector for rabies, such as raccoons, bear in mind that, if you get bitten by the animal, and someone manages to trap the animal, the animal will be killed so it can be tested for rabies. If you feed a bear, the bear will start approaching other humans looking for food, someone will think it’s a threat, and the bear will most likely be killed.
You’re not doing wild animals, endangered or not, any favors by feeding them.
Because it’ll get in the ceiling of your building, eat the poison the exterminator laid out, die, and release it’s bodily fluids… directly above your boss who’s sitting in a meeting in the conference room.
No, she wasn’t too happy when dead raccoon piss fell on her.
Well, with global warming, the 'gators might just be making their way there now. (We’ve got 'dillos in TN, a former cow-orker thought they’d make a great pet, even after I told him they’re walking leper colonies.)
The most intense predator of raccoons in my neighborhood is the automobile.
I put out food for wild animals. I like wild animals. I don’t like them inside my house, so I take steps to prevent that. They don’t invade trash cans because I have tight-fitting lids and I don’t keep trash cans outside except just before trash pickup.
I don’t care what wild animals eat the food. Birds of all kinds, deer, raccoons, possums, foxes, porcupines, squirrels (ground, red, gray), chipmunks, and skunks are frequent visitors, and I like them all. I enjoy watching them and consider them an asset to my immediate community. One of the reasons many of us are here is to enjoy them.
They don’t hurt me and I usually avoid entanglements. A few years ago, a family of coons was friendly enough that I could hand-feed the babies, but I don’t usually try that, as I realize there is some danger involved. No animals are larger than deer, and none will cause me harm unless I antagonize them.
So, Beaucarnea, none of your arguments have any effect on me. I hope you get devoured by a very large raccoon.
