What to do about possibly rabid racoon?

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diemaco

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While eating lunch today I saw a young racoon wandering around my property. We watched him for about a half hour, and he was walking kinda funny with a stiff legged gait, and going in circles. He came right up to the house, ignored the pile of corn and kept walking around, eventually out of view beside the garage. I got ready to leave, and got in my car and noticed him behind me when I went to backup. I revved my engine, and honked my horn and he just kinda stayed there circling. I got out of the car and yelled, clapped my hands, and he looked at me briefly and then slowly started walking towards me. I felt he was acting pretty funny, so i ran to the house and grabbed my rifle and shot him.

My question is, what should I do? SSS? call the ministry? I don't want to invite problems...but if he is rabid, it would be best to report it I would think.
 
diemaco said:
While eating lunch today I saw a young racoon wandering around my property. We watched him for about a half hour, and he was walking kinda funny with a stiff legged gait, and going in circles. He came right up to the house, ignored the pile of corn and kept walking around, eventually out of view beside the garage. I got ready to leave, and got in my car and noticed him behind me when I went to backup. I revved my engine, and honked my horn and he just kinda stayed there circling. I got out of the car and yelled, clapped my hands, and he looked at me briefly and then slowly started walking towards me. I felt he was acting pretty funny, so i ran to the house and grabbed my rifle and shot him.

My question is, what should I do? SSS? call the ministry? I don't want to invite problems...but if he is rabid, it would be best to report it I would think.
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You could have just backed over it instead of shooting it. Don't touch it, scoop it up with a shovel and bury it. Rabies can live externally on those critters.......:eek:
 
It is a rural area, I am not a farmer, firearms discharge is allowed, racoons are not in season, I shot it because it was acting stange/bold (not really aggressive) and I'd rather shoot the raccoon then have to put my dog down (inside at the time)
 
Rabies is an endemic disease that gets the wildlife guys all worried. They have control programs and will need to know the spread. Call the fish cops. "Self-defence" is a legitimate action.
 
diemaco said:
It is a rural area, I am not a farmer, firearms discharge is allowed, racoons are not in season, I shot it because it was acting stange/bold (not really aggressive) and I'd rather shoot the raccoon then have to put my dog down (inside at the time)
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It doesn't matter that they aren't in season. This would fall under the protection of property clauses in the Fish and Game Act in Ontario. Call your local health unit. They can tell you what to do next. Needless to say keep your animals and self away from the area in the meantime.
 
I agree with these guys. Tracking possible cases is more important to the Wildlife guys than you shooting a single Raccoon.

Just don't play down the animals behavior. You saw it acting very strangely, it was bold and ignored a ready food source to approach you despite your efforts to deter it, so you decided to shoot it and report it just in case.
 
shortandlong said:
you could also say you seen a raccoon acting strangely and that it "disappeared"
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Sure, but if it was a confirmed case, it is not the only infected animal in the area.

They will undertake some wildlife control measures if they can confirm the diagnosis through testing, and he will likely sleep easier too if he knows one way or the other.

If you are really paranoid, seal it in a plastic bucket, and drop it on the CO's office step with a note and an immediate follow up phone call from a public phone to the reporting line. Just be sure to mention which forest it came from just in case control measures are needed.

Go ahead and dig your bullet out if you're CSI Tin Foil crazy. ;)
 
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I would report it, my son was attacked by a house cat when he was about 4. Him and three other kids were bitten and all had to undergo rabies treatment, brutal to watch and hold his hand while he took all those shots.

They finally found the cat about three weeks later, they killed it and the autopsy revealed a brain tumor. When I lived near Ottawa there were some rabid Raccons and the MNR were very concerned about them.
 
shoot and phone the mnr. Hell I shot a squirrel a few weeks ago with the .22 while out hunting rabbit. Lucky I hit it because it was running right for me and wasn't stopping. Shot it then it was pretty much at my feet.

Anyone with a dumb comment to this one (my "experience"). Say what you want but if a squirrel runs straight towards you from 30 yards away and you shoot it when its almost sitting on your boots something ain't right. Never hesitated or anything is what I thought was weird ... just ran. Mating season maybe ... but I wasn't waiting to figure it out and read an encyclopedia to educate myself. Now I'm not scared of a damn squirrel, but the possibility of rabies and being infected with one scratch or bite had it decided to run up my pantleg LOL is more than enough reason for me to drop it.
 
Personally I would just bury it and forget about it, but won't do any harm to report it either. I have unfortunately had to take the rabies treatment twice. Once when attacked by a dog and the other time when a dog I owned somehow got it. My dad shot the dog that bit me and because he shot it in the head they could not test for rabies, so I was given pills and shots that time as a precaution. Apparently there is two kinds of rabies. One kind the animal just acts dumb and the other kind they will attack other animals or people and bite. My dog had the dumb kind so I took him to the vet to see what was wrong with him. They kept him and he died that night. The tests showed he had rabies. Because he had salivated all over me I had to take the treatment again only that time it was injections. Around twelve of them I think in the stomach. Another time I had another dog which killed a rabid fox and they quarantined the dog for I think three weeks. So if you have a dog or other pet which were outside at the time you might want to watch them
 
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