Raccoons drunk in crab apples provoke a false rabies alert in West Virginia

Cleve R. Wootson Jr., The Washington Post

published

16:42 PST, Wednesday 14 November 2018

Enraged animals are of course not a laughing matter. The rabies virus can infect the central nervous system, causing illness and death, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases. But this happens after a host of more and more frightening symptoms: partial paralysis, agitation, hallucinations, hydrophobia. A British man and two children died in Morocco after being bitten by a rabid cat.

It was not surprising that when people in Milton, West Virginia, saw raccoons behaving strangely, they turned to the local police.

The agents went to the area where suspicious animals hung, looking for traces of masked authors.

But when they caught two of them, they realized that they were dealing with a different type of problem.

Raccoons were not enraged. They were drunk.

Raccoons apparently feasted on crab apples that fermented in the tree, forcing small animals to walk "narcotic and disoriented," the police said.

"It turns out that they seem to be drunk with crab apples," the police said in his official statement to the community.

The apprehended animals were placed in custody and allowed to be sobered in what can only be considered as a drunk raccoon cart.

Then they were released back into the wild, but not until an enterprising officer took a picture of the animal, showing that he was stunned, goofy, more than a little bit in. outside of it. They named a drunk raccoon in Dallas and released them both near the woods.

And with that, Dallas has joined a long line of animals that have made the headlines of public drunkenness.

Gilbert officers in Minnesota, for example, were told that under-influenced birds "were flying against windows, cars and acting confusedly," police chief Ty Techar wrote. According to Antonia Noori Farzan of the Washington Post, the berries had fermented before the birds flew south for the winter, and the birds ate and drank them.

But all the birds were not affected in the same way, writes the chief: "It seems that some birds are getting a little more" drunk "than normal," he wrote. "In general, the livers of young birds can not process toxins as effectively as more mature birds."

Residents who thought they might be in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock's film in the 21st century were amused but also relieved:

"That explains why I hit 7 birds with my car this week," commented a person at the chief's post.

And in Wayne Township, Indiana, in the spring, a frantic woman entered a fire station and told firefighters that her raccoon was "lethargic" and possibly severely stoned after being put on fire. in the pot of someone else, according to the Washington Post.

Large breed animals are more common, more and more jurisdictions are legalizing marijuana and people are transplanting it into tasty edible products that also appeal to their pets, who do not know how to read warning labels and who do not 'usually have no control over the impulse to stop one,' reported Brulliard.

Although most of the calls involve dogs eating marijuana, Brulliard wrote: "Veterinarians also cited examples of rabbit chihuahuas, steamed cats and even accidental stoning of rabbits, ferrets and rabbits. ;birds".