A pet raccoon has been euthanized in Clinton Township after it attacked two children. Bandit, the three-year-old raccoon, climbed over its owners fence and attacked an eight-year-old boy, ripping his pants, and a three-year-old girl, leaving her leg bloodied.
Just before the attack, witnesses say that the raccoon was acting weird, running in circles, falling over, hissing and dripping from its nose and was missing a majority of its fur.
Keeping a wild animal is a violation of state law according to Macomb County Chief of Animal Control Jeff Randazzo.
“We have this wild animal,” said Randazzo, "it may be trained, but it’s not tamed. It’s still a wild animal, it still has wild instincts and you’re not really doing it justice. It’s more for the person, verses for the animal.”
The family that owned the raccoon found it as a baby and decided to raise it. Bandit was kept inside and slept with the families grandchildren regularly. Radazzo insist that if you find wild animals in need, don’t take care of it yourself, call the professionals.
“If you come across injured wildlife or an orphaned baby, you call the wildlife rehabilitator.”
Randazzo thinks that the family is underplaying the danger that Bandit put, not only them, but neighborhood in.
“I think in this case,” said Randazzo, “all they see is that their pet raccoon is being taken from them and being humanely euthanized and sent to Lansing for testing. I think at some point it’s very hard for them to go beyond that.”
The young girl that was attacked is already receiving post-exposure rabies vaccine.