Hello fellow animal lovers, my name is zayin and I am a 17 year old who lives in Texas and to be fair I love my state it's actually one of the most lenient states including pet laws allowing individuals to own tigers,lion, exotic small cats, genets, coatimundis, lemurs etc etc but what's one thing we can't own? Raccoons, we can own giant cats made for killing but not lovable little bandits? Raccoons are like cats with hands they do what they want, eat what they want, and live like the world is theirs to roam and they're definitely friendlier the 600lbs killing machine. Texas has a lot of reasons why you can't own raccoons, they're native here, risk of rabies, they're wild animals blah blah blah and I have a counter argument for all of these. Firstly, the fact that they are native here is an overall dumb excuse. They're not endangered so people keeping and adopting them wouldn't hurt the Texas ecosystem one bit. Secondly, rabies, now this is a valid argument rabies are dangerous and I get that but so are 600lb cats with claws the size of my fingers and rabies shots are a thing. Any mammal can contract rabies. Yes raccoons are one of the more known possessors of this disease but dogs, cats, coyotes, and bobcats all are high risk too, and are completely legal. So as long as the owner is responsible, rabies will not be a problem. Lastly, they're wild animals, yes but so are the 600LB BEASTS WHO CAN BEHEAD A MAN WITH ONE SWIPE OF ITS PAW (yes I'm angry that lions and tigers are legal and raccoons are not). And it's been proven raccoons are smarter than dogs and less aggressive than cats, making them very viable for domestication, and speaking of smarts, they're intelligent, fun animals who can learn commands and experience emotions such as compassion, curiosity, sadness, and happiness. Yea they're wild and yea you should never just take an animal out of its habitat, but if shooting them on site is legal so should adopting them on site be. Also if a raccoon going under rehabilitation becomes "tame" it must immediately be put down??? That makes no sense and is just cruel. I hope some of you will take the time to read and sign this because these amazing creatures deserved to be pampered and loved upon, not just seen as trash stealing pests.
