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

Fort Myers News-Press ^ | October 27, 2002

[Shermy]

Coors Light and curiosity were almost a dangerous combination for a Bonita Springs raccoon.

The fluffy black and white masked creature spent more than a week climbing trees and hobbling around the shores of the eastern Imperial River with a rusty, dented Coors Light beer can stuck on her paw.

[BJClinton]

... there are some varmints which are meaner and nastier and frankly, of less benefit to this world.

You talkin' 'bout Democrats?

[eastsider]

Now the doctor came in, stinking of gin,
and proceeded to lie on the table.
He said, "Rocky, you met your match".
And Rocky said, "Doc, it's only a scratch.
And I'll be better, I'll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able".

[strela]

Anyone who can tell me how to shoot or rid me of skunks without them spraying gets a free leg of lamb.

If you just want to keep them away from a specific area, get a couple of boxes of mothballs and sprinkle them around (not too thickly - you only need one or two every several feet). Skunks detest the smell and won't come anywhere near an area staked out with mothballs.

Works wonders keeping them away from my chickens. While my neighbor's coop gets raided about once a week by skunks, its been months since I've lost a hen to them. (Now the coyotes are a different matter - they've been tough on all of us).

[cavtrooper21]

Ping

[MHGinTN]

More than a few cattle have died from ingesting empty plastic soda bottles. [Most drivers don't believe small animals have a soul. I do, and I further believe we humans have a spirit, which the others in the animal kingdom don't have, thus we are responsible to their protection. We know better, fashioning right and wrong ...]

[Sabertooth]

This is the work of a light beer drinker.

[xJones]

Surely you don't demand they accurately describe anything so abstruse as molecular chemistry?

Not reporters, but thank *you for doing so. :)

Welcome to FR, BTW.

[Pablo64]

Skunks are indeed a bigger nuisance than coons are (IMO) even though we lost several chickens to coons when we first started raising chickens. Couldn't figure out how they were getting them, since they weren't getting into the fenced in area any way, but there were definate coon tracks all around the outside and asside from a few feathers, we never found a trace of the poor chickens.

Skunks will just tear things up for the heck of it, while the coons are generally just looking for food (although they can get mighty curious about stuff that's not at all food related).

As for the skunks; there are traps that will let you catch them live but don't allow them to lift their tails high enough to spray (they have to lift it to expose the openings to the scent glands and work the muscles that cause it to shoot out). Once you catch them, you could do away with them in a number of ways that would keep them from spraying, or if you wanted a less "drastic" measure, you could drive them way out into the boonies and turn them loose (I put that in for the bunny huggers who might read this).

[Gigantor]

"Since when do aluminum cans rust?"

During a construction project I once found a Pepsi can from 1968, that had "New all-aluminum can" on the label.

It had been buried for 25 years, and it had a few small rust spots on it...

[Gigantor]

"It always enrages me when I am walking down the street and see kids (and others -- I've seen illegals do this as well in my town) unwrap a candy bar, finish a soda, or slice of pizza, and then, without hesitation, non-chalantly and brazenly toss the wrapper/can/paper plate on the sidewalk."

Sounds like you live in New York City.

[mafree]

This is taking "hold muh beer" too far.

[hot august night]

You're close...I live on the outskirts of Manhattan in the Socialist Republik of New Jersey.

I remember watching "Gigantor" as a child and enjoyed it...it was on Channel 5 in the NY metro area...I think it might have been back-to-back with "Go Speed Racer."

[mg39]

"of course animals think, and they design skyscrapers and airplanes. They contribute to our economy as food, and provide companionship for the lonely, but I have never seen a single wild or domestic animal that I could converse with... Having studied both biology and theology, I have a great deal of respect for that which God gives to us, but you give yourself away when you talk about how the racoon has "evolved". My teachings on biology were that animals do not reason (read=think). They respond to stimuli (hunger, fear, danger, sex)! and it is almost hunting season... do you own a gun, or bow & arrow, or just go to the supermarket for all that you eat??" When did you study biology -- the 1800's? Apparently you don't follow the news. Chimpanzees are estimated to have the intelligence of a 5 year-old. They are self-aware. Orangutans and gorillas can use sign language. Dolphins and grey parrots can solve problems. Baboons have been determined capable of abstract reasoning. Crows can make -- not just use -- but make, tools to accomplish tasks. And, anyone with a pet dog or cat can tell you they have emotions and can think. You say you studied theology, which is apparent in that you hold onto a very primitive view of a bright line separating homo sapiens from every other species. This pre-evolutionary theory view of the world belongs in the same dustbin that contains the theory that demons cause illness and angry gods cause thunder. As for where I get my food, I get it at the supermarket or farmers' market. Oh yeah, I'm a vegetarian, since you're curious. I have no issue with people hunting animals, so long as they eat what they kill and make sure they kill what they merely wound. However, don't delude yourself into thinking you are not depriving a thinking, feeling creature of its life. You are, which is why the best hunters, like my father, always say a little prayer over the animals they killed for food.

[agrace]

LeBlanc said it’s not only raccoons that can be injured by litter.

How do they know that the beer can was litter? Sure maybe it was but raccoons don't exactly let closed garbage cans get in their way and unsecured bags of trash are like ringing the dinner bell. Raccoons are all over our neighborhood if they smell garbage (we've seen evidence a dozen times in and around our garbage cans) and my NJ suburb is hardly a country setting. Leaving for work around 5 am one morning found my husband staring down 5 raccoons on our back porch - I had put a bag of garbage out there the night before and forgotten all about it. He was not happy. :)

[demosthenes the elder]

my dog, without question, thinks. in many ways she is significantly more rational than the average democratic voter. true, this is not saying much, but it does puncture your "only humans think" bias.

[demosthenes the elder]

on more than one occasion I have caught illegals tossing trash into the bed of my pickup.
needless to say, on more than one occasion said illegals have seen my .45 and had to take a walk to the nearest trash can.

[hot august night]

Try doing that in NJ where concealed-carry is outlawed, and you'll be sent to prison for 10 years. As it was for my gun permit, I had to wait five months, and then be called to the police dept. to be re-fingerprinted because the detective told me "the FBI has deemed your fingerprints to be unreadable." Even he didn't believe that, and was annoyed. And on top of McGreevey, now we are going to be cursed with Lautenberg again, the great gun-rights hater. NJ is a sewer.

[blackdog]

Coons dining on chickens is a pretty complete meal. The only left-overs I have found was chicken feet. Lot's of chicken feet. We had a coon actually living in the attic to our chicken barn. To live up there that darn thing had to squeeze thru a 3" crack. He was able to do it. I cut a hole in the ceiling with a chainsaw after stapling wire mesh over the crack. I shot him with a 20 guage. I pulled up a drop cord light and there were hundreds of chicken feet strewn about. The previous owners of our farm must have been feeding him well too.

I'll try modifying our have a heart traps so that there is a lower wire top for the skunks. Thanks for the tip. Another poster mentioned moth balls. I tried that but I watched our chickens gobble them up. It didn't kill them but I am sure it's not a good thing. I also tried lime(it's supposed to burn their feet) and it didn't seem to do much good and I had to re-apply it every time it rained.

[demosthenes the elder]

At the time, I didn't care about possible consequences. I am still amazed by how angry that form of disrespect makes me. What I did is certainly illegal here in Georgia, but it is an open question as to whether any police officer would care to make an issue of it. Probably NOT, in Doraville - where these events occured.
Oh, and feel free to move down here, where the gun culture is alive and well.

[demosthenes the elder]

well said. killing - whether in mercy or for food - always makes me feel filthy, and I must apologize to the animal. I am a carnivore, and am certainly of the opinion that no animal has yet been proven to posess the equivalent of the human intellect, but to say that they neither think nor feel at all is ludicrous in the light of both scientific discovery and personal observation.