The raccoon was a “baby”, they said. It was a curious little animal. It had a certain intelligence, something one could easily relate to, a certain innocence. And that innocence was now being rewarded. It was being rewarded by a man who was throwing some processed food at the little raccoon. The reward was a feeding. Had the animal stayed in hiding, for just a few more hours, it would have had a chance to survive for a few more years perhaps. Perhaps it would have had a chance to be a scared, cautious wild animal, living in an area of human recreation. But the curiosity was about to kill it. Maybe not immediately, as it was being rewarded now. The food that the man was throwing at it was probably not really too bad tasting. And maybe this caused the brief illusion that humans were friendly creatures, who were generous and kind and sharing, worth coming back to, worth taking food from. Again. And again.
But the park is just simulated nature. It is actually a managed recreational space. It is there to entertain humans, and it is there to remove some of that pressure that they put onto themselves to create the world outside of the park. That difficult and sometimes almost inhimane world. So the park is kept clear of anything that could in any way cloud the entertainment and recreational value of the place. Hundreds of geese were captured and killed by poison gas a few years ago. It happened on the lake in the background. Sure there were objections to the killing. But they all came after the fact. Not very helpful to the animals that had been rounded up in their sleep one night.
The raccoon in the picture will likely be killed as well. It migth just be too expensive and too difficult to try to get him to a place where he would be too far away to trust humans again. If such a place even exists anywhere near here. It will probably just get killed by someone who hopefully knows how to do such a thing quickly. Not a pretty thought, no matter how it will be done.
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