Raccoon -vs- Dog (+ gun & crying child)

I let Misha (our female Akita) out into the yard tonight. She has a 60x140 fenced yard. She immediately lit off into the dark, I heard growling, knew there was a problem. I got a pair of shoes, a shovel and a flashlight. Misha had gotten a raccoon and had a bit of a fight. It was a quick fight, but the raccoon was still alive and obviously injured.

Now while this is happening the lovely Mrs_B comes out and she calls Misha to the patio. I have the raccoon pinned under the shovel. When the dog is inside I move back to let the raccoon loose. Only then did I realize the raccoon's back was broken. It crawled to the landscaped area along the fence but couldn't get out. I went up for a gun. I hate to kill animals like this but there was really no choice.

So I come down with a .223 and my wife is now on the patio begging me not to shoot. My daughter is screaming. She, being naive, wants to take the raccoon to the vet to get it fixed. My wife is worried I will shoot the neighbor's house. (I can hit 20 out of 25 targets on a trap range, not great, but good enough to know I won't shoot the neighbor's house unless I wanted to).

I did what needed to be done. But the gunshots put the dog into a panic, she barfed on the dinette floor and then hid under the piano in the music niche. I got rid of the raccoon and went in to make a Kahula & Coffee, sat down to find my daughter crying, my wife giving me the evil eye. I came upstairs. My wife now knows how badly the raccoon was hurt, she certainly understands. My daughter does not. She is sleeping on the floor next to our bed.

Bob - next time I'd suggest a few good whacks with the shovel.

Even some good stomps on the head would be more discrete than the gun.

It's all about the right tool for the job.

Sorry for the grief from the wife and daughter - that sucks.

Dig up some sites on how racoons have rabies and maybe she'll think less of them.

PB

Yep. PB had the right idea . A shovel would have been better and much quieter .I know though that in a moment of panic we sometimes do things differently then we would otherwise do under less stressful conditions . If it had happened in the water you would be burying your dog now . Racoons can be extremely dangerous to dogs and cats . I saw one kill a dog in a lake and no one could save that poor pup . Sorry about your daughter being so upset .

In the past I've tried to dispatch a dog-injured animal with a shovel. But it takes a lot more whacks than you might think. And in one case I was sure I had killed an animal with shovel, heard bones break, etc. The next day it was scratching in the garbage can I had tossed its body into. That was a bad sound that had more ill effects on the family than the gunshot method.

What I have found with Akitas is that raccoons are no match for them. As many stories as I have heard about raccoons tearing up dogs, I've gotten to see first hand my Akitas dispatch well over a dozen of the little masked critters over the past 10 years.

Tough one Bob. You did what you had to do. That kind of thing can be very tramatic for the youngsters. Be sure you daughter understands the situation as best you can.

Bob,

You did what needed to be done. A 12 gauge may have been a better option but it's personal preference and weapon availability.

To help your daughter feel better, you should have noted that against most dogs, the coon could have won that fight. If you then said that the looser has to die, which animal would she have preferred to be put down.

Never had to shoot them or hit them with a shovel. The dog would kill them with a good shake and then leave them. He killed 2 porcupines before he died. He also suffered the consequences... If you want to kill them with the shovel, you have to hit them in the nose pushing back into the neck, from what the veterinarian told me. Junk...

I think a well placed whack with the EDGE of the shovel will do the job. Don't use the blunt area. Probably depends on the shove too.