Sick Racoon

[Murph]

Just had to call the Police in my city to let them know if they got a report of a gunshot it was me dispatching an apparently sick racoon that had wandered into the yard, and was snarling at my two little dogs. We managed to chase it out of the yard, and away from the house and kids. This is the first time I have seen a raccoon in the yard, especially one that looked weird. PD would not let me shoot it, so we ran it off. I see opossums all the time, but never a raccoon.

[princer7]

Wow, hope it did not have rabies.

[SCone]

Benjamin pellet gun does the job with minimum noise.

[Flea77]

Just wondering, other than snarling at the dogs (which is quite normal) what made you think it was sick?

Allan

[crazeazn]

we've had some in our house. finally got rid methinks.

[JustAnotherGinger]

They did not want you to shoot it, and risk damaging the brain. Most likely, Animal Control is going to pick it up if they haven't already. Raccoons are in the high risk 5, of contracting/spreading rabies.

[John_A]

Three s's technique.

Shoot
Shovel
Shut Up

[Murph]

thin, mangy looking, shaking, and just not looking "healthy" compared to others that I have seen.

Originally Posted by Flea77

Just wondering, other than snarling at the dogs (which is quite normal) what made you think it was sick?

Allan

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by WhiteWolfPhoto

They did not want you to shoot it, and risk damaging the brain. Most likely, Animal Control is going to pick it up if they haven't already. Raccoons are in the high risk 5, of contracting/spreading rabies.

Just to clarify the potential for a rabid racoon:

From the World Health Organization website WHO | Rabies

Dogs are the source of 99% of human rabies deaths.
95% of human deaths occur in Asia and Africa

Some more interesting information I found at the Indiana State website at ISDH: Rabies Education Home shows that racoons found with rabies ranked number eight tied with pigs, far below #1 Skunks, #2 Bats, #3 Dogs, #4 Foxes, #5 Cows, and #6 Cats. They found 4 rabid racoons since 1962 in the entire state, compared to 182 dogs. This is in a state where it is state law to have your dogs and cats vacinated against rabies!

The vast majority of rabid racoons have been found on the east coast Distribution map in what is called reservoir of terrestrial rabies which does NOT extend into Texas, where the skunk is rabies king.

Roughly 6% of all reported rabid animals turn out positive, meaning 94% are false. Rabies remains one of the most over reported animal problems in the US. That is not to say you should not take rabies seriously, you should, but you should not jump to conclusions either.

With all that being said, racoons ARE in the higher risk bracket, but the "higher risk" bracket means they have found more rabid racoons as compared to rabid squirrels in the past fourty nine years. While definately a reason to be cautious, it is absolutely not a reason to freak out.

Allan

PS. Murph, you did exactly the right thing, get it away from your family and pets, let the trained professionals handle it.

[princer7]

Thanks for the info, Allan. Did not realize the distribution was that low.