Originally published at: A pet raccoon was executed after couple brought it into a store to buy food | Boing Boing
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But what would have happened if that racoon had come equipped with a gun?
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This particular example seems harsh, but we really don’t want people keeping wild animals as pets. That the raccoon couldn’t be rehomed in a wildlife refuge was no doubt a decision made by the local officials without much thought.
During lockdown one guy in NYC was found to have a >300# tiger in his apartment. People often interact with wild animals in ways that are detrimental to both.
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“Damn, that tiger had a lot of hashtags!”
- Gen Z
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‘Phew!’, said ghost raccoon.
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Came to say essentially the same. I say this in every similar topic thread, but most people get their knowledge of nature from Disney movies. Wild animals are wild animals. They can not be domesticated. Domestication does not mean “be real nice to it from a young age and it’ll be nice to you”. That will appear to work for a while, until it doesn’t. Then the animal will attack you or someone else, become very stressed, probably hurt itself trying to escape, and generally create a very cruel situation.
Wild animals raised in captivity have to be euthanized because they do not know how to survive on their own, but cannot be trusted around people. The humans who tried to keep it as a pet have engaged in what is effectively child abuse. They have denied this animal a chance for a normal life because they think it is cute. Don’t be mad at the officials that have to put them down. Be mad at the stupid humans who think raccoons are pets and don’t understand that domestication is genetic, not moral.
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Well that is definitely a story about a series of bad decisions by the “owners” of that animal, which got to pay the price for them.
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An important point. The officials who are given this unpleasant task generally get into the business of animal control because they like animals, not because they have a desire to kill creatures.
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I thought Tiger Guy’s story happened in, like, 2005
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Being euthanized was clearly more harmful to the raccoon than being kept as a pet.
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Also this slightly older person who was a bit too European to get that at first glance
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It helps if you pronounce it “Gen Zed”.
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Or, you know, monitor the animal for several days to see if it shows signs of rabies. Killing an animal to test for rabies is usually done if there is a bite involved and time is of the essence. That does not seem to be the case here.
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Explain to the class how animals became pets in the first place, if you’ll be so kind.
Also, did nobody entertain the possibility of the animal having been born to a captive parent animal?
“ Domestication does not mean “be real nice to it from a young age and it’ll be nice to you”. “
Anyone with a pet cat or dog will know all about that - our feline owners really know how to show their displeasure at their pets being tardy about getting their dinner ready on time
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You don’t know nearly enough to make that assertion. You don’t know what stress the animal is under, nor what its future holds when it becomes aggressive.
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Ugh, here you go: ℔
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Evolution. Domestication is a genetic condition that takes millennia in the company of humans to develop. Raccoons have not had anywhere close to that. Not every animal can be domesticated, either. Cats barely are. Many other species have been tried over the millennia and it has failed. What we have now is basically it. The Russians managed to possibly create some domesticated foxes through a very aggressive breeding program, but the jury is still out on whether they are genuinely domesticated, or just very calm.
That’s not what domestication means, and if true it just compounds the cruelty. Being born in captivity does not mean it won’t become aggressive and have to be put down. Wild animals are genetically wild. Domestication is not a behavioural condition. Keeping wild animals in captivity is cruel regardless of how or where they were born.
The only reason to do it is because people think they are cute, which is incredibly selfish.
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And just who domesticated who, anyway?
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Bringing wild animals into stores is a personal choice, and it’s your personal responsibility to protect yourself from rabies if you feel anxious.
-Public Health officials in 2023, probably
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