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Oh the stupidity!
Mar. 12th, 2011 02:42 pmA week-old Pike County, Illinois girl is in the hospital after a pet raccoon attacked her face.
You can read the whole story yourself, but I'd just like to point out that 1: raccoons do not make good pets for the vast majority of people or raccoons, and 2: I don't give a flying bloody fuck through a rolling doughnut how nice your animal of any species is, why the FUCK did you leave it unsupervised with a 4 day old baby? Even a 1/2 pound pet fucking RAT could kill or maim an infant if left alone with it! Babies CANNOT defend themselves. Do not DO THIS very stupid thing!
Raccoon's owners of course say it wasn't vicious. Well, to blatantly steal a line from Scott Weese of Worms and Germs, "wounds caused by accidents heal at the same rates as those caused my malice." Personally, I have a hard time qualifying this as an "accident" since it was absolutely foreseeable and easily avoidable, but whatever.
Sucks for the 'coon that it had to die for the gross negligence and stupidity of this kid's mother and grandparents. Also, I'm not entirely sure about Illinois, but it is illegal to keep wild animals as pets in this state. And the bit about having vaccinated the 'coon for rabies? It's not (in this state, but apparently in California, it IS) illegal to vaccinate "off label" species, but it also provides little or no legal standing, because the vaccine has not been tested or shown to have efficacy in those species. So, as shown in this case, the courts will typically treat a vaccinated exotic as an un-vaccinated animal. Please note that dog/wolf and dog/coyote hybrids count as non-dog species for legal purposes of rabies vaccination, so if you vaccinate a wolf-hybrid you get no legal protection, sorry.
(Also, I found this comment quite amusing and valid: Wounds caused by accidents heal at the same rates as those caused my malice.
You can read the whole story yourself, but I'd just like to point out that 1: raccoons do not make good pets for the vast majority of people or raccoons, and 2: I don't give a flying bloody fuck through a rolling doughnut how nice your animal of any species is, why the FUCK did you leave it unsupervised with a 4 day old baby? Even a 1/2 pound pet fucking RAT could kill or maim an infant if left alone with it! Babies CANNOT defend themselves. Do not DO THIS very stupid thing!
Raccoon's owners of course say it wasn't vicious. Well, to blatantly steal a line from Scott Weese of Worms and Germs, "wounds caused by accidents heal at the same rates as those caused my malice." Personally, I have a hard time qualifying this as an "accident" since it was absolutely foreseeable and easily avoidable, but whatever.
Sucks for the 'coon that it had to die for the gross negligence and stupidity of this kid's mother and grandparents. Also, I'm not entirely sure about Illinois, but it is illegal to keep wild animals as pets in this state. And the bit about having vaccinated the 'coon for rabies? It's not (in this state, but apparently in California, it IS) illegal to vaccinate "off label" species, but it also provides little or no legal standing, because the vaccine has not been tested or shown to have efficacy in those species. So, as shown in this case, the courts will typically treat a vaccinated exotic as an un-vaccinated animal. Please note that dog/wolf and dog/coyote hybrids count as non-dog species for legal purposes of rabies vaccination, so if you vaccinate a wolf-hybrid you get no legal protection, sorry.
(Also, I found this comment quite amusing and valid: Wounds caused by accidents heal at the same rates as those caused my malice.
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