Man Helps Raccoon Caught In Beer Can (Florida, With Pic)

Fort Myers News-Press ^ | October 27, 2002

[hot august night]

Southerners are my kind of people. Real Americans and real patriots. You can take these liberal, "sophisticated" Northeast liberals and express them off to Red China, where they can feel right at home. If I had a dime for every dirty look I get when I wear my NRA cap, I would be able to retire.

[mg39]

Thank you for confirming that common sense and decency still exist.

[Old Professer]

Believe it or not, we freeze all of our garbage; anything that will rot is immediately refrigerated for leftovers or wrapped in a plastic bag and frozen. The frozen bag is placed in the trash can on pickup day just to forestall hungry critters who might otherwise smell it and make a mess in our yard.

We have a compactor for all of the cans and paper goods smaller than newspapers or cardboard boxes and all these go in a recycling container of 93 gallon capacity and it is stuffed before the scheduled pickup date of one month.

I don't know anyone else who does this.

[-YYZ-]

While I appreciate wildlife and hate to see an innocent animal suffer needlessly as much as I hate litterers, I can't help but wonder about the significance of one racoon with its foot stuck in a can when compared to the numbers that become roadkill everyday. Many of the racoons I see as roadkill are in fairly rural areas are probably are not pests. Having said that, it doesn't seem like their numbers are being impacted in any serious way.

Which brings up another subject - road kill. Many people seem to think road kill is quite funny. I think it's sad. The critters in question are just minding their business, trying to get from point A to point B, when POW! they're dead or dying. Not part of the natural order, and many of the roads around here are so busy that scavengers don't even get a chance to consume the carcass, so it's pretty much a complete waste.

[mg39]

Gotta agree with you. Roadkill distresses me every time I see it for the complete and utter waste of life, especially when the animals were obviously young. I try to be especially careful when driving at night -- not only for wild animals, but for cats who people foolishlessly let run around at night.

I am happy that this particular raccoon was saved, as he was suffering with that sharp can stuck on his paw.

[pageonetoo]

yes, I read the news, and I have read all of the reports you have noted, however, I do choose to believe in the superiority of man. I say grace before meals, to thank God for his provision. I am sorry that you consider it primitve thought that there may be a God in control of all this.
As a vegetarian, you must know that those poor plants are also living things, but of course, they are just lower down the food chain. Do you say a little prayer for them when you cut their stems?
Are they also capable of thought? If you take a potted plant and turn it away from the sun, it will turn it's leaves back to gather that necessary source of energy.
The evolutionary theory presupposes too many things to have much validity, but of course I am just clinging to a superstitious religiion, which I accept as truth. I don't know when God made the universe as we know it, but I believe He did breathe life into it. I would not attempt to argue with a pet owner, because they always wish to apply human characteristics to the object of their attention.
Studies that reveal an awareness of surroundings, and learned responses, do not necessarily imply intelligence. Most studies begin with a presupposition!
Charles Darwin posited the "THEORY of EVOLUTION" after studying the world as a youth. He refuted his very own THEORY before he died.
I am going to keep my theology, thanks, and proudly acknowledge the Biblical background from which I base MY OPINION.
In a class on ethics, the prof came into class with a bag, a hammer, and a pocketwatch. He placed the watch into the cloth bag. He hammered the bag until you could hear loose parts jangling. He then shook the bag, and made the statement, "there is a better chance of my shaking the bag and restoring the watch to wholeness, than for evolution to be true". If there is any truth to the evolutionary story, it is, in my opinion, guided by a higher power. I will just call Him God.
And thank you for a chance to give Him more honor!

[Pablo64]

You might even be able to borrow some skunk traps from your local animal control officer. When I was a kid I remember my friends mom borrowed the traps because the skunks were turning their garbage into an alley buffet everytime they put it out to be picked up, and then they were trying to get under the house. I don't know if she had to give a deposit to borrow them, but I know that she didn't have to buy them, just make the right phone call.

[mg39]

Plants do not have nervous systems. Plants do not feel pain. That is a bogus argument used by some people to justify cruelty to animals. Nevertheless, I am always thankful for the bounty the Earth offers me, and I recognize that plants die for me to live.

It also seems to me that a religious person such as yourself would honor God by showing compassion for animals.

[pageonetoo]

A "religious" person like me usually does show compassion to dumb animals. However, we do not consider them to be human, nor do we generally anthropomorphize most things.
I am against any kind of cruelty, but also against the idea that dogs "cry" and chimps "think".
I have long been fascinated by crows and other wildlife and take a walk daily in the woods. I choose to live next to a 23,000 acre wildlife management area. This state land is specifically devoted to promoting the wildlife HUNTING AND FISHING opportunities present there.
Of course as a vegetarian, you may accept eating fish, as being Politically Correct (many do). Why should there be a categoric difference in fleshy life forms?
I remain open to any type of proof , but am entirely skeptical of hypotheses!
And besides, no man (or woman) can DEFINITIVELY state that plants feel no pain, they just assume so!

[mg39]

You are certainly entitled to reject modern scientific findings regarding animal intelligence, just as you are entitled to reject the modern scientific embrace of the theory of evolution. I am afraid, however, that your rejection puts you in the camp of obsolete scientific thinking.

Vegetarians by definition do not eat fish. I certainly do not. And, ethical vegetarianism has nothing to do with "P.C." It's a concept as old as Pythagoras, and probably older.

Modern science is unanimous in its conclusion that animals feel pain. As far as science now knows, plants do not feel pain. You may enjoy this essay explaining why: http://skepdic.com/plants.html

Do plants experience something like pain? Perhaps. As you correctly point out, we will never know for sure. Is it on the level of awareness of a cow or human? Of course not. Since one must eat to live, it follows that if one wishes to cause the least amount of suffering, one should eat lowest on the evolutionary scale, that is, eat only plants.

I offer this message as a rebuttal, but I accept that you and I will not agree on whether or not nonhuman animals think and feel (my cats, I'm sure, disagree with you as well). Still, it is good that you reject cruelty to animals, for whatever reasons you may have. Having worked at a sanctuary for abused, tortured, and mutilated animals, I can tell you that their capacity to suffer is all too real.

There are some people who don't care at all about cruelty to animals, and some who outright enjoy inflicting it (such people are usually cruel to other people, too), and while I respect your opinions despite disagreeing with them, for those latter people, I have only comtempt.

[pageonetoo]

" I am afraid, however, that your rejection puts you in the camp of obsolete scientific thinking. "

WE all have our own opinions, and list of forbidden things, but you presuppose that science is always correct.
I place modern scientific "fact" into the realm of possiblilty, only. But to embrace modern science as THE authority, is to follow down a very slippery slope.
Modern science makes us aware of problems we never knew existed. Example: They bring us the dire predictions of the end of life as we know it due to GLOBAL WARMING. Yet, most of the actual data, that the "scientists" use to predict the demise of civization, is based on hypotheses (computer modeling). Most of the ACTUAL data presented by NASA temperature recordings, and most other legitimate sources refute those conclusions. And history shows us tht the world has heated and cooled before! Did automobiles cause the ice age?
Observation and experience can lead to many different conclusions, based on utilizing the same data. But every study always starts with presupposition.
I applaud your commitment to vegetarianism, but I thoroughly enjoyed the NY strip beef steak I grilled for lunch and served with a baked potato, smothered with butter and sour cream. I do not consider the raising of this cow, to be slaughtered for my enjoyment, as cruel.
And to point to science saying that heart disease, hypertension, etc come from eating meat, I just accept that we will all die from something. I am more concerned with what happens AFTER DEATH! It was a good steak!
As for agreement, though, we can both agree that to enforce NEEDLESS suffering is cruel. There is certainly enough data to confirm that most of those folks doing harm to dumb animals, are much more likely to harm a person!
But God will deal with them, not me and you!
But I do accept, BY FAITH, that all of CREATION is for OUR (man/woman) benefit, not for those "dumb" animals. To me, it is not outdated superstition. It is the living, breathing Word of God!
I pray that you will see that science can't compete with Him, only confirm! Science is a religion, supposedly based on fact, but constantly "evolving". God is constant, never changing!
But, He is also benevolent enough to let us have a will, and gives us a choice.