I find this all rather ironic, because if there were a dead, rotting animal-rights protester lying in a ditch somewhere, it would most SURELY attract the attention of a number of raccoons.
:-p
LOL! Well said!
This animal was obviously suffering, probably from distemper, and the boys put it out of its misery as quickly and efficiently as possible, using what was on hand -- same thing local animal control would have done if they'd been notified. Even the Humane Society is not naive enough to think the county would dump its resources into the hospitalization and treatment of every dying raccoon. Moreover, had this animal been permitted to roam the campus until animal control could respond and retrieve, it would have posed a potential threat to others who might have approached it. Kids or pets could have been bitten.
That said, the mirth making and public skinning of the carcasse is only tasteless, at the very worst. I think the university is going to bow to the politically correct crowd, as they almost always do, but only by applying mild discipline. Since the object wasn't to torture this creature, but rather to dispatch it by judicious application of brute force, nobody can make a case for "animal cruelty."