Raccoons are dying from a serious disease on the MS Coast. A cop fights to save them.
On a foggy February morning, Joshua Holland walks through an empty property off Paradise Lane in Bay St. Louis checking animal traps he set the night before.
Holland, a Bay St. Louis police officer who also volunteers as the director of security at Wild At Heart Rescue, checks each trap looking for raccoons.
He recovers two raccoons, neither of which are happy to be caged, as well as two possums that he promptly releases after a quick apology.
After placing the raccoons into the bed of his truck, he prepares his tools, puts on gloves, and with the help of his mother, Lazanna Dahl, he calmly coos to the raccoons while vaccinating each one for a disease called distemper.
Holland and other animal advocates on the Mississippi Coast have noticed an uptick in distemper cases in raccoons — especially in Hancock County. Distemper, a neurological disease that can affect many wild animals and even domesticated dogs, causes raccoons to lose their instincts, appear lethargic and disoriented, and can also cause the raccoons to have seizures or starve to death.
“Collectively, we’ve probably taken in 30 or more [distemper positive] raccoons in the last four weeks,” said Holland. “Those raccoons are inevitably euthanized — it’s the greatest mercy that we could give them as it becomes overwhelming for the animal. It’s agony.”
Seeing the raccoons suffering spurred Holland to act. After getting permission from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Holland set up a GoFundMe to raise funds to trap and vaccinate as many healthy raccoons as he could.
So far, Holland has raised more than he expected. The GoFundMe has exceeded its $1,000 goal and has included donations from a variety of Hancock County people and businesses including Bay St. Louis Police Chief Toby Schwartz, Favre’s Towing, The Real Estate Company, Cotter Services and Bay Pool Company.
“Right now, I have 100 vaccines from the funds that were raised, so that’s 100 raccoons that can be vaccinated,” Holland said. “I was expecting to have the funds to maybe do 50. And I still have funds to order more vaccines.”
Holland warns that raccoons with distemper can be dangerous for pets and humans. They should never be picked up and are still wild animals.
Pets can also contract distemper and should be vaccinated for it as well, Holland said. He also recommends not leaving pet food outside, as raccoons may eat it and spread distemper to pets if the animal is infected.
Holland says that if a raccoon is acting pet-like, lethargic, drooling or having seizures it could be distemper positive and Wild At Heart or another rescue should be contacted so they can retrieve the animal.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
