Raccoon Shooting in Rainier Neighborhood

My children will remember the great ferret debacle--where the whole neighborhood --including the police department went into mob action over a ferret. It was ugly, for the ferret, and pretty traumatic for my children. That was 25 years ago. In all that time, the neighborhood properly ashamed and chagrined over their abysmal behavior, has been domestic pet and wild life friendly. (In case you're wondering, there has long been a debate as to whether the ferret was domesticated and freed, or was in fact a wild ferret. The truth will never be known.) But everything changed last night.

Maybe I should have seen it coming when folks down at the store were all upset over sighting a coyote in town. Each person was telling the others where they had seen it. Really? There have been coyotes in town since the day I moved in over 25 years ago. Frankly, my guess is the coyotes have a family history here longer than any one else. But suddenly folks were getting worked up.

Then as things do, it escalated and mutated now folks are getting worked up about a raccoon or raccoons that were eating the koi out of their ponds. I get that koi, especially large ones, are expensive. But they are fish---they are outside. Raccoons aren't their only problem. We have cats, cougars, owls, eagles, hawks--you name it---they all need to eat.

Well as it turns out, a neighbor down the block shot a raccoon. It was daylight and as would be expected it wasn't a lethal shot. The raccoon was wounded and leaving a blood trail--which in turn was being followed by the shooter, the shooter's wife and about 15 neighbors of various ages and physical conditions---all tromping through the yards trying to find the injured animal.
(Not to render aid, but to dispatch the poor creature to meet his god.) Alas, they were unsuccessful in finding the wounded animal.

I hope the wound was not serious and that the raccoon will recover. I doubt seriously that it will return to the neighbor's pond--it has probably learned its lesson. The scary part for me, is that now we have pistol-packing neighbors that will shoot at anything that gets near their yards or ponds---this is, I fear, a recipe for a future tragedy.