"tame" Raccoon

Mon, January 14, 2008 10:58 am
Hello,

Over the years I have tried numerous times to get information on releasing a ‘tame’ coon into the wild. Do you know of any organizations that do so in [state removed]? I have had George for almost four years now. He is a typical coon in so many ways but has a couple things working against him. 1. He has one eye. As a kit he snuck into the crawl space and came back up a short time later with a small drop of blood under his eye. I took him to the emergency vet to find it was punctured and had to be surgically removed. 2. After the first year of trying to find a rehabber I took him in for all his shots and got him neutered. I don’t know if that will affect his ability to be wild. After the first rehabber told me he was to tame, at about 6 months of age, I went along with the idea of keeping him. That’s what led to the neutering, I was trying to limit aggressiveness that I had read about. He is very tame and loving even now, but still a wild animal as I’m sure you know. I applied for and got the DNR permits required to have a raccoon in [edited].

Now here is my dilemma, the permit will not transfer to our new house, it’s not considered rural enough even though it’s only 2 miles away. And the final thing is my husband and I are now expecting. As much as I love him I don’t trust him around an infant or toddler. He spends too much time in his pen now, and I can imagine it would only get worse after the baby is born. He gets along well with our 11 year old. But I think my husband has had enough. At this point the only thing I can come up with is euthanasia, unless you have another option. I work from home so he gets lots of supervised interaction each day, his best friend is our beagle.

I did not go out with the intention of getting a raccoon, I work in construction and found him under a home, his littermate was dead in the yard and he was extremely emaciated and dehydrated. I bottle fed him through the weekend and tried to find a rehabber the next week. They were all full but the Humane Society offered to euthanize him for me. I just couldn’t do it. The rehabbers were all full. By the time I could get him in he was 6 months old and deemed to tame. Because I volunteered there they let me take him back to research other options and I still have him today.

Any direction you can give me would be so appreciated.

I don’t want to let him go, but I don’t think he has the quality of life he deserves. Thank you so much for reading through this and I hope to hear from you soon. I just need to see if you think he could possibly be wild again.

Thank you,
[name removed]

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Thank you for taking such good care of George and great blessings to your family for treating him as King Lotor that he is.
This is just an update for those of you following George's progress:
George will be with a licensed wildlife rehabber within mere days [early Feb] in the perfect place for him to be. George is one of the fortunates who Dory & the Orphans have had the virtual pleasure of crossing paths with. We will keep you updated on George on doryandtheorphans.blogspot.com.