Interesting story from this morning I felt like sharing.
I was out for my morning run today, just starting my last mile and heading home, and a woman in a car pulled over and waved me down.
“You going to run past the (local high school) stadium?” She asked.
I confirmed I was, and she said “Be careful! There’s a raccoon pacing around in the street and I think it’s rabid. I called it in already.” I thanked her and went on my way.
A few minutes later I approached the area around the stadium just as two local police cruisers rolled up on a big troubled-looking raccoon in the street (pictured). They honked at it a few times to try and scare it off, and being rabid, of course it didn’t run away.
I thought they were just going to keep people away from it until animal control showed up. I continued my run, turning off the main road and following the path that goes around the back of the stadium, as I do.
As I was running behind the stadium, I heard... *POP!*
I paused my music and thought... wait... was that...? Then I heard another *POP!*
I emerged from behind the stadium to see two police officers standing over the raccoon, one still holding his gun.
Yep, they dispatched the thing right there in the street. Surprised the hell out of me, given the fact that we’re basically in the city. I thought just straight up euthanizing animals on the side of the road was a country thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no sympathy for the raccoon. It was infected and needed to die, for the good of the other animals and people in the neighborhood. I’m just really surprised at the methodology. I’m a big proponent of safe gun usage, and I’d kind of prefer that no one, even police, discharge a firearm in this densely-populated neighborhood. It’s just a bad idea. There’s too much going on.
Isn’t animal control supposed to deal with this sort of thing anyway?
So yeah, that’s my little story.