Animal Control rant/ideas?

[firenze11]

My parents found a very sick raccoon in their barn yesterday. It was out in the day, listing to one side, and very slow moving. They ended up being able to trap it and it's very very aggressive. Of course we are worried about rabies or distemper. Animal control says they don't deal with raccoons, only dogs. Every other society/ministry/agency we called said to call Animal Control.

To make matters worse, it escaped sometime late today. Now it's loose on the property again.

[VeloVT]

State police???

it may be a story with a sad ending unfortunately. I believe in this country, if you find, say, a deer that has been seriously injured but not killed, lying in the road, the police are able to deal with it.

[makbike]

Fish and Wildlife

[carpaltunnel]

In Nebraska a Game Warden from the State Game and Parks department could help you with that. Do you have a corresponding department in your area?
The symptoms you listed are good reason to be concerned.

[firenze11]

I've pretty much called every ministry/agency I can think of. This is the amazing/frustrating part.

The Humane Society ("call animal control")
Animal control (only dogs)
A vet our vet told us to call
The Police (no answer, glad we didn't need them for a human emergency)
Ministry of Natural Resources (they have a Rabies Unit)
Food Inspection Agency - Animal Services (they had a rabies info hotline which led me to an emergency number)
The emergency number led to a woman in Alberta who told us to call local Animal Control and then was totally shocked they told us they would only get dogs.
And finally, as a last resort, a Pest Control company.

The run-around has been crazy. The vet told my Dad that there were no cases of rabies in raccoons in Ontario last year. No wonder why, they're no way to report it

Even if it isn't rabies I don't think my parents or I (since I'm here for awhile) should have to risk dealing with a sick, angry raccoon in a cage.

Hopefully one of those agencies will call us back but I don't think anyone is open until Tuesday.

Why couldn't it have been a cute Easter bunny?

[SouthernBelle]

Here it would be the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Part of your problem may be that it's been a holiday weekend.

[sundial]

I would contact Fish and Wildlife and see if they know of a vet that specializes in wildlife rehabilitation. If not, perhaps the authorities may know of a wildlife sanctuary for raccoons.