Hey i just wanna know are raccoons evil in some kind of way ? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by Legend@lemmy.sdf.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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A lot of things i thought were cute and nice like dolphines, ducks, cats (i saw one cat eat anothers new born), dogs (multiple cases of eating dead owners due to a variety of reasons starting from trying to wake em up to other malicious reasons), hamsters etc turned out to be wrong . Raccoons are the only thing i believe in anymore so give it to me straight are they as they seem ?

Edit : To reduce confusion and to not have to answer to duplicate comments NO I do not hate animals . I think they are all neat and they are what they are and I don't hold them up to humans standard but I'm not an animal person like cat people or dog people either . I hope this clears it up.

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[-] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 months ago

Are raccoons evil? Absolutely not. Like humans, some individual animals may engage in anti-social activities (be assholes) but, with a few exceptions, non-human animals do not engage in things from a long-term perspective that is required to develop philosophy, culture, ethics, and morality. Another requirement is likely possessing Theory of the Mind; an understanding that other beings have their own mental states (intention, desires, knowledge, etc.). Few non-human animals have been demonstrated to have this ability and frequently, the evidence suggests that it is also not an ability present in all members of the species.

So, the TL;DR is: No and very few animals could have the capacity to be "evil".

So, what are they?

Cute, inquisitive, intelligent, clever, and, yes, fairly dangerous. Raccoons have sharp teeth and claws that can do serious damage to humans and houses, and they can be very deadly to cats and dogs. For canines, it's generally smaller breeds that are at risk but, in some places, like Western Washington state, populations of raccoons have been observed hunting in packs to take down larger dogs.

Why did I mention houses? Well, raccoons are intelligent and understand enough to get themselves into trouble and cause serious property damage. There are multiple accounts of people feeding local raccoons then, after coming home from a vacation, discovering that the raccoons that they had been feeding had pulled shingles off the roof and damaged the building's sheathing in an attempt to get the food that had been suddenly cut-off.

Additionally, raccoons can carry rather dangerous infectious diseases. On the viral side, they are a major vector of the rabies virus as well as distemper. For bacteria, they have been shown to be vector of listeria and leptospirosis. They also can carry a number of parasites, including acting as the primary host for Baylisascaris procyonis, which is a particularly resilient roundworm (eggs can survive 20% bleach solution) that can cause encephalitis in humans.

Trash pandas are awesome but, best enjoyed from a safe distance.

this post was submitted on 07 May 2024

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