By ABC News: A Tennessee man who appeared in a YouTube video dancing with his pet raccoon to Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” has started a social media campaign to get the raccoon back after it was seized by state wildlife officials.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency took the animal away from Mark Brown two weeks ago because state law says it’s illegal to keep wild animals as pets.
Brown, of Gallatin, Tenn., says he rescued the raccoon when she was born in May and bottle-fed the animal. He named her Rebekah.
“I feel like I’ve had one of my children taken from me,” said Brown, a former animal control officer.
His pet is playful, he said.
“She’d play, she’d chase bees, she’d pick flowers, whatever, she’d do what raccoons do,” he said. “If she’s released into the wild, all hunters of legal hunting age can train their coon dogs to kill her or trap her for her fur. That’s not what I want.”
In his determination to be reunited with Rebekah, Brown has also appealed to Tennessee Gov. William Haslam. A petition on Change.org appealing to the governor currently has nearly 800 supporters.
“We have a nationwide campaign now called free Rebekah,” Brown said. “We get 75 to 100 emails daily and they’re all petitioning governor Bill Haslam to give me a full pardon, to forgive me of my sins and let me get a permit to keep her.”...Continue reading...
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