This story is near to my heart because I was once almost mauled by a rabid raccoon while on one of my day long rambles through the suburbs of New Jersey. I was only saved from a series of painful rabies shots by my penchant for unusual clothing, including 17 inch leather boots which I thought were quite dashing. They also proved to be raccoon proof which has solidified my preference for tall leather boots ever since. It’s a long story but suffice to say the parks and pathways of New Jersey are not a great place to run into a foaming at the mouth animal, and if you do running across the nearest deep stream will buy you enough time to make your escape.
So when Tennessee Republican Steve King let his Twitter followers know that he ended up putting down a raccoon that kept trying to claw its way into his house I understood that he had to do what he had to do to protect his family. A raccoon is about the size of a medium sized dog and weighs in around 40 pounds. That’s a lot of teeth and claws coming your way if things go wrong. So I personally think King was in the right.
P.E.T.A. disagrees:
He (King) told Roll Call that he was on a Feb. 9 conference call when the raccoon returned.
King grabbed the Desert Eagle — “It’s the one I had handy,†he told HOH — and went after the raccoon, which fled. But King caught up, fired and killed the creature.
“We can’t have an animal that might be sick, might be rabid, out there,†King said, adding that his granddaughters often play in the area where he spotted the raccoon. “That’s just what has to happen when you live out here in the country.â€
Problem is, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) late this morning has criticized King, with spokesman Jaime Zalac saying King should not have dispatched “a small animal seeking warmth in another blizzard,†a second Roll Call piece relates.
“I would hope he’s not on any (House) committees that make decisions regarding cruel and unusual punishment. Decent people would call animal control for help, not get on Twitter to boast about having a really, really big gun,†Zalac said.
This from an organization that routinely kills animals they take in for their supposed adoption program. Public records show that P.E.T.A. found homes for only 1 out of every 300 animals it’s “no kill” shelter takes in. P.E.T.A. itself admits to killing some 95.8% of the animals they got their hands on in 2008. None of those animals were potentially rabid.
More importantly this response shows that far from being nature lovers P.E.T.A. and their supporters are disconnected from the very natural world they claim to love. Raccoons are dangerous, only people who haven’t seen one think otherwise. Nature is struggle, an endless cycle of beauty and violence that makes life possible and the disconnect from natural law creates people like the Jaime Zalac who have no idea how nature works. People like Zalac believe man has tamed nature but in reality we hide from it, huddling behind a flimsy barricade called civilization that can only offer us temporary shelter.
Raccoons shelter from blizzards in the wild all the time, they don’t need to come into your house. It is unusual behavior which may indicate that the creature is rabid. P.E.T.A. thinks in that situation you should throw caution to the wind and allow your family to be mauled. People who truly love nature know better.
h/t N.R.A.
