Zombie Raccoons Terrorize Ohio Town

A series of isolated incidents involving raccoons happened in Youngstown, Ohio. With the  strange behavior displayed by the raccoons, over a dozen of them have been euthanized. Apparently, these raccoons were suffering from a virus known as distemper. 

This virus affects animals such as dogs as well. The viral disease, leads to coughing, tremors and seizures. When a raccoon is infected with this disease, they lose their fear of humans as well. Distemper is not yet known to be contagious to humans. Typically, distemper can kill a dog without the proper vaccinations. 

The “Zombie-like” raccoons, have created as stir in Youngstown. Authorities here have since responded to over a dozen different calls, regarding strange behaving racoons. The local television station WKBN-TV reported on Tuesday regarding these strange behaving animals.

One local resident named Robert Coggeshall, was outdoors playing with his pet dogs. His beagle dogs along with him, were outside when he noticed a raccoon acting rather strangely. Robert is 72 years old and looked over to see a fearless racoon, making its way over towards the front glass door of his house. His dogs faced off against the raccoon, as they were locked into a dead gaze with one another.

Robert immediately knew something was wrong, as raccoons are nocturnal animals. They are almost never out during the daytime rummaging. At first, he attempted to shoo away the raccoon. Without success, he backed away…as the raccoon stood up on its hind feet and sneered displaying its sharp teeth and pinkish gums. He also noticed saliva oozing from the raccoons mouth as well. 

The raccoon, suddenly collapsed into a comatose-like state. Robert said after a while the raccoon woke up from its lethargic state. The animal seemed to wander around for a bit and returned to walking on its hind feet again. Robert said, “It was kind of startling.” The raccoon returned again as it attempted to enter his front door several more times. 

All of this strange behavior, lasted for several more hours. Robert also is a wildlife photographer and naturalist. He snapped 250 different photographs, documenting this odd raccoon. Local police mentioned that there have been at least a dozen different racoons, behaving this way over the course of three weeks. 

For everyone’s safety, they should stay clear of such animals. Raccoons can transmit rabies, canine distemper, and parvovirus to domestic animals and humans. Any raccoon seen such as this wandering during the daytime, most likely has something wrong with it. It has lost its fear of humans and that can be a dangerous thing. 

Source: http://www.freaklore.com/zombie-raccoons-terrorize-ohio-town