Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Marquel Dawson, the Fairfield teenager who attacked a mountain lion with a samurai sword (Video clip) to protect the family dog. Or at least he thought it was a mountain lion: Fish and Game officials now believe the animal was actually a raccoon.
You may chuckle, and I’m sure that Dawson’s rep has taken a hit back home. He’s probably lucky he’s not in high school anymore. But I would like to point out that when Dawson armed himself with a sword he thought he was attacking a mountain lion. He thought, “Should I attack a mountain lion? Yes, this is a great idea, this cannot possibly be a bad idea.” The guy held a samurai sword over his head and swung it at what he thought was a mountain lion.
Even if at the time he kinda sort realized it might have been a raccoon and only changed its genus and species (and Family — they are both of the Order Carnivora) for publication, I’m not sure I would have decided against a samurai sword if I had one at my disposal — those things are wily, and this one was tussling with a 65-pound pit bull. I think Dawson’s lucky the raccoon didn’t have its own sword.
The Sac Rag 
Well, the world’s largest racoon is 75lbs, bigger than Marquel’s dog.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/265759/bandit_the_worlds_fattest_raccoon.html
But it doesn’t appear this racoon is capable of attacking anything other than leftover buckets of KFC…
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Did you see this kid’s parents on the news talking about what their son did and why? It explains a lot of where his mindset came from. Oh, and his overblown story.
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Dunno about California raccoons, but the ones in Minnesota would bite the heads off of full grown rabbits and rip open aluminum-mesh chicken coops. The department of natural resources out there used to warn residents not to tangle with them or let one’s dog tangle with them, that is, if you wanted your dog to come home with its face intact.
My own experience with raccoons however was pretty tame. My kids used to leave Chicken McNuggets and teriyaki beef jerky out for them, and we’d watch the critters come out at night and eat. Which we shouldn’t have done, but you try finding something to do in rural Minnesota after 6 p.m.
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In N. Wisconsin and U.P. Michigan where I am from you would usually assume the culprit in dog attacks was a badger or wolverine, a racoon attack is a lot less likely. But even if you spent a lot time in the woods you would rarely or never actually see badgers or wolverines.
For that matter, in the upper midwest you would absolutely never see a young black man waving aroudn a samurai sword, either.
Anyway, maybe California racoons are meaner or more rabid then those back home.
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That reminds me of a vacation we took in Bayfield, WI, while the locals were in a panic over an outbreak of attacks by fishers, which are kind of like a big mink or weasel. Unfortunately, this was nothing compared to the panic that broke out when a lone African American man was seen walking along the main road into town. It turned out he was the new chef at some hotel, hired out of Chicago. But the poor guy didn’t even have to carry a samurai sword to cause a commotion out there. The upper Midwest isn’t known for racial diversity. But furry animal attacks, yes.
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In the early 90’s I worked at a fancy conference center in South Lake Tahoe and they would have wine and cheese receptions outside which I would have to clean up after at 11pm or so. Several times I came down to the deck and there would be two or three VERY MEAN raccoons on the tables munching on leftover cheese cubes and crackers. They would look at me and hiss and I would go right back inside until the food was gone. Then later walking back to my cabin I would come across them scavenging in the trash cans. After they attacked the owner’s cocker spaniel the conference center cooks went to the sporting goods store to buy baseball bats and tanning hide kits; you can guess the rest.
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