A horrible, horrible night......UPDATE 11-19-11

[EweSheep]

You did the best thing even it is the situation you didn't expect it to turn out to be.

 

[kari_dawn]

Quote:
I HIGHLY doubt that. I have worked with hundreds of raccoons over the years, and I have never come across a rabid one, and I live in a rabies "hot bed" area.

Raccoons are opportunistic, and while they are mainly nocturnal, they will appear at any time of day if they think they can score an easy meal. They are very intellegent, and highly adaptable. OP did the right thing...once wildlife becomes a nuisance animal, it is time for them to go. Good for you in knowing when it was time to take action. I know it's hard, but sometimes, we have to learn the hard way. I lost my entire flock to foxes one night when my family left the coop open after my repeatedly pleaing for them to be more vigilant if they wanted the birds to free range.

After that, though the birds were mine, my family has listened very carefully to me in reguards to my new birds.

 

[speckledhen]

It's not them being out during the day that would make me think the coons were rabid, but the fact that they chased her! Not normal!

 

[Hunter0704]

I agree in that you would be wise to not feed birds from a feeder. It definitely pulls raccoons to your yard. We have a metal bird feeder that has a ring on top that screws into the roof of the feeder, and I can't tell you how many times we have woken up to the feeder being UNSCREWED with the ring and screw still hanging from the hook on the tree...the feeder itself is always within 10 feet of the tree where it was hanging. I got so angry I cut the end off of an outside electrical extension cord and wired the metal feeder...then each night just at dark I plugged in the extension cord. In six weeks time, nothing!!! Someone told me that raccoons may not have liked the "new" orange extension cord and stayed away from it. Who knows? Within two days after removing the extension cord because my husband wanted me to, the raccoons pulled down the feeder again!!!!!!!!!! I now have a 12 guage shot gun that I plan on using if I ever see another one on my property. I read somewhere recently that raccoons have a two mile radius that is their area...that to trap one and take it to another area is a wrong thing to do because the area you would take it to will undoubtedly have raccoons in that area who will kill new raccoons. You might as well shoot them and don't worry about them becoming extinct...where there is two, there are five babies and usually eight more.

 

[CluckCluck18]

I'm so sorry for your loss. If you think you are an idiot than the rest of us are, too. We've all made plenty of mistakes and when you know better, you do better! I feel for you...you try to be so conscientious and do everything right.....hang in there, it will get better and get rid of those racoons no matter how cute they are.

 

[bobbi-j]

Quote:
But OP did state that she encouraged them to be tame. They could have been looking for treats. They can get aggressive when they're looking for food.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
I HIGHLY doubt that. I have worked with hundreds of raccoons over the years, and I have never come across a rabid one, and I live in a rabies "hot bed" area.

Raccoons are opportunistic, and while they are mainly nocturnal, they will appear at any time of day if they think they can score an easy meal. They are very intellegent, and highly adaptable. OP did the right thing...once wildlife becomes a nuisance animal, it is time for them to go. Good for you in knowing when it was time to take action. I know it's hard, but sometimes, we have to learn the hard way. I lost my entire flock to foxes one night when my family left the coop open after my repeatedly pleaing for them to be more vigilant if they wanted the birds to free range.

After that, though the birds were mine, my family has listened very carefully to me in reguards to my new birds.

Here in West central New Jersey, rabies is endemic in the coon population, and epidemic outbreaks are fairly common. A coon about in the daytime is not all that unusual. A coon aggressively attacking humans is another story.

 

[kari_dawn]

Quote:
But OP did state that she encouraged them to be tame. They could have been looking for treats. They can get aggressive when they're looking for food.

yep, this exactly what I was going to add. Coons are exceptionally intellegent. Once they associate humans with food, they will chase after them if they think it will get them a meal....Once they are imprinted on humans, it is very hard, and sometimes impossible to undo

...I would bet the juvi coons were chasing her for treats...kinda like how our chickens chase us for treats.

(those chicken toe pecks hurt too!!)

 

[mondotomhead]

I don't think the raccoons were rabid either. I think they were just hungry and remember me giving them leftovers. It had been two days since I stopped feeding everthing including the wild birds. I think they were frantic to get fed. Still scared me though. Being chased by two snorting and sniffing wild animals was pretty disconcerting.............and in the dark.

 

[seminolewind]

If it's any consulation to you, your post made me run out and buy some hardware cloth and redo the roof on my pen, it was just shade cloth. I had been procrastinating. Not now, thanks to your post. But I'm still sorry it happened to you!