Question:
I'm not sure if you'd consider this controversial or not...but I'll go ahead and post it.
I was thinking about earlier this summer, when a friend and I went swimming at the dam. I was still sitting on the grass, since the water was rapidly cooling. From behind me, a baby raccoon came up to me, sniffling and whatnot. First I was surprised, and a little worried, because if it was wild...well
a.) It shouldn't be out that early
b.) It shouldn't be so friendly
Turns out that someone from the mountain had taken it as a pet. At first I thought that was a cool idea. Raccoons are so adorable, and I kept thinking about Meko, from that Disney cartoon.
But what happens when the raccoon grows up or they get tired of it? What do you think? I was possitive there were laws in place about this sort of thing...*Thinks on that*


Answer:
my dad used to rescue raccoons from people's garages barns etc,,,, whenever someone had one in their place they would call him, he would use a live trap, catch it and send it on its merry way, ( our house was on 100 acres of woods) occassionally a mother with kits would show up and for some reason disappear or something and the babies would be left, so we raised them and when they were old enough set them loose. i have to say they were the most endearing, affectionate and curious animal i have ever been in contact with. the babies would need to be fed from a bottle for a while and i would always think it was just like a kitten or something.
we never kept them as "pets" we gave them the respect a wild animal deserves and always turned them loose ( that was always hard)
it bothers me when people try to domesticate animals that should be left alone.


Answer:
We raised a litter of three orphened racoons. Bandit, Mischief, and Trouble. As soon as they were old enough to be weaned, though, we turned them over to a rehab center who worked toward getting them able to be released.
I do not agree with wild animals being taken as pets, for the most part. If you have the knowledge, time, dedication, space, proper set-up, and money (for exotic vet costs) to care for a wild animal, then go ahead, but very few people have all of that.


Answer:
Driving down the street in town one day I say a woman walking a raccoon on a leash ... talk about a double take. Anyways, that was about a couple years back and I havn't heard anything about it in the papers/news/radio. And this is something that the radio would of enjoyed talking about. So maybe they can be kept as pets ... she was actually walking the raccoon ...


Answer:
There are people that keep them as pets and actually breed them I believe. I guess it's the same thing as prairie dogs.
As for keeping wild animals, I do not agree with just taking them right out of the wild to have as pets. If they are orphaned/injured and someone takes them in to care for them, that is different.


Answer:
Many states have laws against keeping native wildlife as pets - which generally includes, opossums, skunks, squirrels and raccoons. There are usually ways around that with various permits though.
As for the controversy of it, I have nothing against it provided the owner cares for it properly. A raccoon could be a real house wrecker if they put their mind to it, and are most certainly not a cage animal. Plucking animals out of the wild (while I don't think there is any shortage of raccoons) is generally a bad idea... but the first ones to captive breed had to come from somewhere, right?
Rav