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Why weren't raccoons domesticated?

Best Answers

As much as I love raccoons (just look at my avatar - one photo of hundreds I took of the many visiting kits), I doubt we'd ever be able to truly domesticate them, even if selective breeding was tried. Why? read more

Raccoons have done a certain amount of self-domestication (note that they actually are doing quite well thanks to humans, and aggression toward humans has been lessened somewhat by natural selection, especially for city raccoons like the ones I see), but they don't offer much in return other than being cute. read more

So a raccoon is unlikely to be grabbing things off the shelf for you. Another problem is they have human-like hands and fingers and are fairly intelligent. This allows them to get into things that most domestic animals couldn't. If you had a raccoon in your house it could probably figure out how to unscrew jars and open doors and closets. read more

And, of course, this domestication occurred over many generations. Raccoons are not specialized in catching small prey as cats are and wouldn’t make very good guards, shy and furtive as they are. They don’t offer much mutual benefit for humans and so wouldn’t be a good fit for domestication. read more

Raccoons are also known to carry illnesses such as distemper, rabies and giardia. However, fans of coons say that they make for very fun pets so long as their pet parents are prepared to meet their needs and keep them well-supervised. read more

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