# Racoons are just giant rats! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 28, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796 "2023-11-28T05:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/41 "2023-11-29T22:21:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, I actually checked. Can you link to a citation? Because I’m pretty sure you are wrong about some of those states. As @Dallas_Jones points out, air-powered guns aren’t legally firearms in many places, and are very lightly regulated. In my state, you need to be over 18 and you can’t fire across a street or at public property. That’s it. (I mean if you shoot your neighbor’s dog, you are violating laws about harming your neighbor, but you’d be in exactly as much trouble if you did the same damage by throwing stones.) In my state, some animals are considered vermin, and can be killed whenever. Others (which probably include raccoons, but i haven’t checked. It does include gray squirrels) can only be killed is season, or, if they are damaging your property. There are also laws against torturing animals. But in general, it’s okay to kill them, if they are in season, if they are vermin, or if they are damaging your property. Also, in my state, it’s generally legal to kill a wild animal that is harming your property, or to trap it and release it back on your property. (Maybe after putting a grill over the top of your chimney, or patching the hole in your fence.) But it’s illegal to trap a wild animal and move it before releasing it. (There are a very few exceptions, which require a permit and special reasons.) So when a coyote starting eating too many small dogs in the neighborhood, the animal control officer and the police tracked it down and shot it. And hoped the rest of its family would move on their own. But they couldn’t move the animal. It’s considered bad to move wild animals both because 1. most of the animals are territorial, and if you dump one in another’s territory, it will generally be killed. 2. that’s a good way of spreading disease among wild animals. The newspapers run semi-regular reminders that it’s illegal to trap and move animals, with quotes from wildlife experts about why it’s cruel to do it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/42 "2023-11-29T22:23:32Z")
That’s a coati, an animal I’ve always wanted to pet if the opportunity came along. The first time I ever saw them was at Gloria’s Exotic Pets in St Albans West Virginia, they had 2 or 3 bottle fed babies for sale and those li’l critters almost broke my heart they were so cute, with their little rubbery snoots and claw-equipped baby hands. Another time there was a sort of tent-show mini-zoo at the County Fair one year, and one of the gents whose show it was had a wee baby coatimundi sitting on his lap, drinking adorably from a human baby bottle. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/43 "2023-11-30T00:46:12Z")
The links to those photos were from [this](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67562353) article about people volunteering to help animals (including coati) affected by recent wildfires. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/44 "2023-11-30T05:37:46Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > We trap and give the offending Raccoon to an old man who fattens them up. They live the life of Riley for a couple weeks. I’m not sure how they’re dispatched but they end up BBQ’d. > I don’t know who consumes them, and I’m not asking. 😱 Are they good eatin’? 😋 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/45 "2023-11-30T06:12:25Z")
Seems so. The guy will take all you trap. I ain’t eating that crap. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/46 "2023-11-30T08:06:36Z")
I don’t know anyone who eats raccoons, but they are related to bears. And bears are said to be tasty if they’ve been eating tasty food. (And nasty if they’ve been living off garbage.) So i imagine that if he fattens them up on apples or acorns they are pretty good, and that if he slaughtered them right after they were caught, they might not be so good. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/47 "2023-11-30T12:45:23Z")
You do not need a license to shoot racoons on your own property in my state (Wisconsin) and you can use air rifles to hunt the following: - Bobcat - Fox Squirrel - Gray Fox - Gray Squirrel - Hare - Rabbit - Raccoon - Red Fox - Skunk - Small Game - Squirrel Some municipalities have ordinances about using air rifles. But ordinance violations are not crimes in this state. I’ve read that over 1/3 of all racoons are rabid. As a peace officer I interpret dispatching one as a form of self defense/defense of others as you are eliminating a potentially dangerous animal. So let the pellets fly. or use C-Bee .22 ammo. It’s a lot of fun to shoot and whisper quiet for back yard safaris. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/48 "2023-11-30T12:56:28Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I don’t know anyone who eats raccoons, but they are related to bears. And bears are said to be tasty if they’ve been eating tasty food. I’ve only heard bad things about eating bear, raccoon, groundhog, and opossum. They’re all said to be greasy and gamey ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/49 "2023-11-30T15:09:19Z")
> [@El\_DeLuxo](#): > > That’s a coati, an animal I’ve always wanted to pet if the opportunity came along. Ex-zookeeper here - our children’s zoo had a coati in the '6o’s, and he was a sweet-tempered chap. He liked to lick your hand with his long tongue, which would give you a close look at his amazing fangs. We never offered him to children to pet, because he was a well-armed wild animal. Dan ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/50 "2023-11-30T15:11:17Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I’ve read that over 1/3 of all racoons are rabid. As a peace officer I interpret dispatching one as a form of self defense/defense of others as you are eliminating a potentially dangerous animal. I live in the northeast, but i know that 20 years ago we had a rabies epidemic, and a lot of skunks and raccoons had it. A local politician saw a raccoon wobbling across his driveway, and shot it. (I forget whether he used a firearm or a pellet gun.) Then he called animal control, which picked up the corpse and tested it. Yup, rabies. That made the local newspaper, where he was celebrated for protecting the neighborhood. A police officer was quoted praising him for quick thinking and acting responsibly. It seems pretty unlikely he was breaking any laws. But the rabies epidemic has passed, at least here. I haven’t heard of a rabid animal in several years. (And during the peak of the epidemic it was common. I saw a rabid skunk in my yard, for instance.) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/51 "2023-11-30T15:45:50Z")
When my parents were still living on the farm, Dad liked to raise a good-sized plot of sweet corn. Almost-ripe corn is considered a delicacy by the masked bandits, so Dad went to great lengths to protect his crop from the cunning bastards. He found that an electric fence consisting of two strands of wire was a great deterrent, but he also set a live trap which nailed a couple of the thieves each year. The question then became how to eliminate the raccoon once it’s in the trap. He didn’t want to shoot it for fear of harming the trap, and he didn’t want to put it in the stock tank where it would likely foul the water. So he came up with his own solution: He put the trap into a large garbage bag, stuck one end of a garden hose in the bag, sealed it, and ran the other end to the exhaust on his car. Running the car for 5-10 minutes did the job, permanently. (And, yes, Dad’s ancestors were German. Why did you ask?) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/52 "2023-11-30T15:52:44Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > (And, yes, Dad’s ancestors were German. Why did you ask?) Heh, too soon! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/53 "2023-11-30T16:01:38Z")
To add to the growing list of “states where it’s perfectly legal to shoot a raccoon on your property with an air rifle”, Indiana is firmly in the “Yea” column. In fact, the DNR specifically recommends raccoons be euthanized rather than relocated back into the wild. Municipality-specific laws certainly can limit this. Indianapolis/Marion County is likely the most restrictive when it comes to discharging a firearm. Luckily, air rifles are not classified as firearms, for very obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/54 "2023-11-30T16:48:32Z")
The problem is they’re getting smarter and more dangerous. I have proof! [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53366973295_ca4eb5ae92_z.jpg "raccoonspossumshogs") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/156627026@N05/53366973295/) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/55 "2023-11-30T17:00:22Z")
Possums are nice. I rest my case. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/56 "2023-11-30T17:10:17Z")
What’s a covid cat? A cat that has covid? Or a cat adopted during the pandemic? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/57 "2023-11-30T17:12:00Z")
I assumed, adopted during the time of lock down and home school. But who knows? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/58 "2023-11-30T17:49:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > I don’t know anyone who eats raccoons, but they are related to bears. And bears are said to be tasty if they’ve been eating tasty food. > > I’ve only heard bad things about eating bear, raccoon, groundhog, and opossum. They’re all said to be greasy and gamey Jules: Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know 'cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherf^#$er. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/59 "2023-11-30T21:25:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > > > This post is mostly incorrect. > > Well, I actually checked. > > > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > > > If I were to report myself to the county sheriffs that I had just shot a racoon they would likely just laugh at me and tell me to dipose of it. > > Yeah, that is true about a lot of laws. Does that mean that act is legal? Well, I actually checked too. In California it is legal to kill racoons. > Raccoons causing damage may be taken at any time by legal means. The [California Department of Fish and Game](https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/) Regulations prohibit the relocation of raccoons and other wildlife without written permission of the Department. For further information, contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife. [Raccoons / Home and Landscape / UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) (ucanr.edu)](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/raccoons/pest-notes/#:~:text=mitigate%20this%20threat.-,Legal%20Status,any%20time%20by%20legal%20means.) > **Raccoons causing damage may be taken at any time by legal means**. And in Oregon. > Raccoons causing damage may be taken at any time by legal means. The Oregon Department of Fish and Game Regulations prohibit the relocation of raccoons and other wildlife without the written permission of the Department. For further information, contact the Department of Fish and Game. [Oregon Wildlife Removal (animalcontrolsolutions.com)](https://www.animalcontrolsolutions.com/oregon#:~:text=Raccoons%20causing%20damage%20may%20be,Department%20of%20Fish%20and%20Game.) And in just about every other state. Would you like a cite from all 50 states? You can look it up yourself. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796/60 "2023-12-01T04:14:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Or a cat adopted during the pandemic? This! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racoons-are-just-giant-rats/993796.md?page=4)