Posted on 04/04/2018 9:59:27 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In the past couple of weeks, Youngstown police have responded to over a dozen of these raccoon calls — all of them with reports of the same strange, zombie-like behavior. The majority of the calls happened in the daytime, too, even though raccoons are nocturnal.
“I looked over there and got distracted because I saw a raccoon coming our way,” said Robert Coggeshall, whose playtime with his dogs was interrupted by a fiesty and sick raccoon last week.
He put the dogs back in the house, but said the raccoon followed them to the door.
“He would stand up on his hind legs, which I’ve never seen a raccoon do before, and he would show his teeth and then he would fall over backward and go into almost a comatose condition,” Coggeshall said.
He attempted to scare the raccoon away, only to find the animal was not interested in leaving.
“He’d come out of it, walk around and then he’d do the same thing again. Get on his hind feet and show his teeth,” Coggeshall said.
Police were called to 14 similar situations in the past three weeks. The reports detail “particular behavior” and large noises or motions not scaring the animals away.
(Excerpt) Read more at wkbn.com ...
Been there and done that. Not me, but I’ve seen a racoon behave like that. It showed up on a warm day around 2pm. Coons are never supposed to be out and about at that hour.
It headed to the hen house, pulled apart the chicken wire and entered the outside pen. It entered the coop itself and bit the head off of one of my best hens. That set off a major cacophony of hen squawking. I opened the coop door and shot him with a .22 before he could grab another hen.
I cleaned up his blood as best I could with bleach water as I figured his blood was rabid. What a mess.
Its called “rabies”.
Likely rabies or distemper, best to shoot raccoons acting strange during day.
Maybe they were eating Milkweed like those poor butterflies.
—
Being raccoons they more likely ate the butterflies that sucked on the milkweed.
About three years ago a very good friend of mine was working in a large office building in Maryland, just outside the DC Beltway.
At the end of the day he entered the connected parking garage and was unlocking his car when a rabid racoon came out from underneath and attacked him.
The horror.....the horror.......
Well, it makes complete sense to me. After all, the Zombie Virus DID come out of the Umbrella Corporation Labs in/under Raccoon City.
That is the last stages of Trump Derangement Syndrome, I’ve seen it before. No treatment available. Sad.
True that
Yeh its called rabies. Racoon’s are one of the worst carriers.
On a warm (65°) Thanksgiving afternoon in 2009 we spotted a raccoon moving in a stupor in our driveway. We were living in a stuffy suburb then so instead of using my own firearm we called the police and an officer came out and did the job for me in our backyard. He bagged the critter and took it away. Since there’s never been a positive Rabies report issued for our area from that time I’d have to assume it was some other condition. But it did match what’s described in this report. Like a psych ward patient doing a Thorazine Shuffle down the hall.
Is it in 3-D? Is it in 3-D?
Count Floyd always has the best movies!
Anything with Akemi Negishi in it is going to be good!
Sounds at first to be distemper, common in raccoons.
We had a raccoon about 6 years ago near our house like this. Would sort of wander around in a corner of the yard about 3’ x 3’. Fall over, get up and hobble around, etc. Wasn’t feisty at all - but yes - like a zombie. Suburbia, so I called animal control but they were busy, called the private animal guys, they were busy. The one guy could come but was $100 or something. He was nice. “Yeah - it’s distemper - it is wiping out the coon population. Just kill it.”
But - I was reading that that is illegal so I called our police non-emergency number. Quite town and a cop was soon there. Scratched his head “Well, I’d just shoot it - but can’t with all of these neighbors.” I told him I’d just kill it but that is against the law.
“Huh? Killing a dying raccoon is against the law? That’s stupid. Well - I won’t tell anyone if you don’t tell.”
After he left I bonked it over the head with a sledge hammer a few times. This after spending hours on the net, making calls, etc. and trying to do the “right” thing. Well - it beats my neighbor. A squirrel fell out of his tree and got hurt. He spent hundreds of dollars at the emergency animal clinic and it still died!
By the way - my kids love the Walking Dead show about zombies. Rabies is sort of that - where the virus takes over your body - even making you not want water (which adversely affects the virus somehow). And there is some bee that can sting a spider, and the spider will spin a hive or something based on the bee’s design! Several other types of that strange stuff. So - I tell them that one never knows - maybe zombies could be real some day. (Insert “smart-phone” joke here.)
Maybe rabies. Raccoons act like this when very hungry. Had a mama stand on her hind legs and scratch the ever living out of my back door one winter.
http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/what-happened-to-liz-on-swamp-people-155205
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