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Jimothy the raccoon has a rare spinal condition. Here's what that means
- ncr100 3mo agoAccording to a local Instagram posting he has difficulty traversing fence rails. When he was young, a year ago, a neighbor saw his family helping him as he fumbled. And so this neighbor says they cut open a hole in their fence at ground level for him. https://www.instagram.com/p/Da5pCzqjhx1/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Da5pCzqjhx1/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da9V4-FOjc_/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da9V4-FOjc_/ So some are appearing to enable this one critter. Also locally - Seattle - local agencies are celebrating, and sometimes incorporating him into their business, including city sanitation departments spicing up pro social sanitation messages about using garbage cans, claiming Jimothy would want it that way. Some of these messages make less obvious sense than others, IMO.
- Larrikin 3mo agoAre you complaining about people helping a raccoon? The Internet hype is a bit much but why are you framing it like this raccoon should have died years ago.
- hbarka 3mo agoGod forbid we put out a pan of dry kibbles for a stray cat or a water pan outside for hiking dogs during hot days. That would be “enabling”.
- Salgat 3mo agoWhen I lived in Chicago I'd see rats and cats eating cat food left out alongside each other. I'm not against helping wild animals as long as it doesn't come with a rat infestation issue.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- hbarka 3mo agoI know that one. It’s the good ol’ tolerance formula: Tolerance(A) = { 100% if A ≠ B; 0% if A → B } Sprinkle on anything to suit your taste.
- e_i_pi_2 3mo agoThis does seem like an unfortunate truth of life, I always want to loan friends money, but can't afford to if they keep not paying me back :/ I also want to put a bird feeder outside a window we have, but I know that'll mean bird poop on a walkway that other people use Same with some technology, I want to use X because it seems better but I know that'll mean it won't get the same support as Y so we have to use Y
- asdff 3mo agoIt doesn't. You already have a rat infestation issue. This doesn't cause it or further it. You think that little handful of kibble compares to the free calories available in an entire dumpster full of chicago deep dish pizza scrap that sits out in the open air day in day out?
- BigTTYGothGF 3mo agoThey can take my bird feeders from my cold dead hands.
- frantathefranta 3mo agoFeeding stray cats and feeding birds are very different things, pretty much at odds with each other. If a stray cat is fed, birds have a more difficult time surviving.
- BigTTYGothGF 3mo agoFeeding birds is just feeding stray cats with an extra step.
- e_i_pi_2 3mo agoI do this too, but it's important to make sure you're either fully adopting them to keep them inside and care for medical issues, or at least make sure they get neutered/spayed before they're let out again if they can't live indoors. Stray cats are terrible for the local ecology- just feeding them without taking those steps is definitely harmful. In my town you can call animal control for strays and they'll clip the ears so you can see that they can't reproduce and are safe to leave out. I'd also be hesitant to give people the idea that racoons are safe to interact with, even stray cats can be dangerous, but racoons can do much more damage. I feel like the ideal situation is they capture him and find an animal sanctuary away from the public. Wild animals with genetic issues don't usually live a great life
- Rotdhizon 3mo agoOr you can just toss some food out and call it a day This ideology that all stray animals need to be siphoned up and neutered on the spot is bizarre to me. Sure there is a balance to be struck as you can't have a hundred thousand cats in a small area, but this idea that stray cats and dogs are simply not allowed to exist and reproduce naturally is insane.
- dghlsakjg 3mo agoHave you ever lived in a place where there aren’t effective control efforts? These programs aren’t about people feeling good about themselves. The middle ground you suggest IS neutering and spaying all the animals you can find. The more extreme end of control is culls. It isn’t something you can ignore without pretty serious second order effects. It ends up being pretty grim for the animals and sometimes humans too when stray population isn’t controlled. I’m talking about the conditions these animals end up enduring, not the culling which is its own grim process. As someone who had to help get a stray cat population under control the ugly way (limited budget in a developing country), I would much rather that strays get fixed before it gets there.
- annzabelle 3mo agoI live in New Zealand, where they are big efforts to cull non-native wildlife, including all mammalian predators. There are traplines through the woods here, and I remember seeing a Department of Conservation visitor centre with a diorama of stray cats being killed by a kill trap. Locally we've got an overpopulation of goats, and apparently they're going to start shooting them from helicopters. They also drop a poison bait called 1080 that kills mammals from helicopters in remote regions here.
- silisili 3mo agoYou do you, but I'd ask in earnest people please don't. Cats are invasive to the US and wreak havoc on local wildlife populations. Where I live, so many people feed the ferals that they've become an overpopulated menace.
- laweijfmvo 3mo agoit’ll probably end up badly, not because someone fed a raccoon, but because someone halfway across the planet will develop an unreasonable relationship with this wild animal.
- MichaelZuo 3mo agoWhat planet are you living on? Homeowners are generally legally liable for anything that occurs on their property, especially if it can affect neighbouring properties to any provable extent. There are carveouts and exemptions, but that isn’t a magical deflector shield. So it doesn’t take a huge imagination to see how it could have negative externalities.
- quickthrowman 3mo agoYou are allowed to not have a fence at all if you so choose, assuming an HOA isn’t telling you otherwise. Property owners have no liability for wild animals transiting their property. If you are keeping pets and they get out I would assume the homeowner has some liability, but a wild raccoon is not any homeowner’s responsibility.
- wildzzz 3mo agoYou're not liable if the animal is just passing through but if you're feeding the wildlife (actively or just have a bunch of open trash cans) and the wildlife decides to do wildlife things to your guests, you certainly could be liable. A hole in a fence is kind of a middle area. Did you create the hole for the raccoon to enter your property easier or for it to leave easier? Rabbits sometimes hang out in my backyard to eat grass and my dogs love to chase them. They usually enter and exit under the fence in the same spot (near my neighbor's vegetable garden) but that spot is near the backdoor and they are sometimes trapped if they are in the middle of the yard or further back (they always escape but there's been a few close calls). I made a small hole at the opposite end of the yard for them to escape easier. But if I knew a critter was struggling to get into my yard, I definitely wouldn't make it easier for them.
- mrbukkake 3mo agoreally soulless comment, nice job
- MichaelZuo 3mo agoIf random opining is worth any more than zero on HN… then can’t anyone else, also opine that they have more “soul” than ”mrbukkake”?
- ncr100 3mo agoNope. Merely collecting requirements for what kind of work humans need to do in order to live "responsibly"... More for thinking purposes. Sorry to be so inspecific, Thanks for the opportunity to clarify. Cheers.
- Terr_ 3mo ago> claiming Jimothy would want it that way. You might enjoy this satire [0], lengthily titled: "I’m Jimothy, the Short-Spined Raccoon Who Has Taken the Internet by Storm, and the Collective Weight of Your Adoration Is Breaking My Already-Compromised Back" [0] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-jimothy-the-short-spined-raccoon-who-has-taken-the-internet-by-storm-and-the-collective-weight-of-your-adoration-is-breaking-my-already-compromised-back https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-jimothy-the-short-spi...
- ncr100 3mo ago<3 thank you .. I will share this with my spouse.
- nkrisc 3mo agoWell it also opens passageways for other ground-dwelling animals as well, which is a good thing. I believe in the UK and other places where hedgehogs are native it’s somewhat common for people to cut small holes in their fences so they can get around. So it’s not really a bad thing, IMO.
- deepsun 3mo agoOn my camera I only see cats. And AFAIK, domestic cats eat way more wild birds than anything and everything else human-made combined.
- electroglyph 3mo agothe cats can traverse a fence, hole or not, so not sure that's relevant?
- nkrisc 3mo agoOk, that settles it. No one should because you see only cats.
- kiaansaraiya 3mo ago[flagged]
- throw1234567891 3mo ago> You’d have to be living under a dumpster not to have heard of Jimothy, Seattle’s favorite raccoon and the internet’s newest folk hero. Or anywhere outside of Seattle, I suppose.
- c22 3mo agoI met someone from Seattle just yesterday who had not heard of it. I think anyone who doesn't live on the internet can be forgiven for not following this story.
- throw1234567891 3mo agoObviously living under the dumpster!
- dieselgate 3mo agoit’s been in front page of nytimes and Reddit and now HN
- throw1234567891 3mo agoI’m so happy. This link made me leave my safe space under the dumpster.
- InsideOutSanta 3mo agoI'm in Europe and I've heard of him.
- shermantanktop 3mo agoI’m in Seattle, live nearby, and have a raccoon family living my yard. I’m boggled the world knows about him, but they do.
- teaearlgraycold 3mo agoEveryone in SF I know is talking about Jimothy.
- pudgywalsh 3mo ago[flagged]
- bakedbeanz 3mo agoWeird, joyless take. What do you get out of looking down on people appreciating a cute animal?
- c22 3mo agoI think the critique was levied towards the notion of asking an ecologist to make a medical diagnosis of an individual based on a handful of tiktok clips rather than a stab at anyone's joy. The url is literally popsci.com though so I'm not sure what gp expected.
- r721 3mo agoJimothy Easter Egg: https://www.google.com/search?q=jimothy https://www.google.com/search?q=jimothy (via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024840 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024840)
- buildbot 3mo agoIt’s absolutely wild how Jimothy has taken over the internet. This is easily the most media attention anyone/anything from Ballard has ever gotten. Also; Free Ballard! End the century of Seattle tyranny! https://www.seattle.gov/city-archives/exhibits-and-education/online-exhibits/annexed-cities https://www.seattle.gov/city-archives/exhibits-and-education... (JK, mostly)
- loeg 3mo agoBallard: it's one of the only north Seattle neighborhoods vaguely affordable to buy in. Lots of young families. Try to ignore the meth heads camping next to the Burke Gilman and industrial areas. (I live in Ballard.)
- operatingthetan 3mo ago>it's one of the only north Seattle neighborhoods vaguely affordable to buy in Most north Seattle neighborhoods north of Ballard are more affordable to buy in than Ballard. Exceptions being North Beach / Blue Ridge, Windermere, Laurelhurst and similar.
- PNewling 3mo ago> Laurelhurst I can’t tell if this is a ‘whoosh’ over my head or what, but saying Laurelhurst is more affordable than just about anywhere besides Medina is wild. They literally had enough sway to have the hospital reroute their flights (it was actually a children’s hospital and they got enough flack about it only this year did they relent [0]). [0] https://www.kuow.org/health-care/2026-05-08/seattle-children-s-and-laurelhurst-neighborhood-agree-to-change-controversial-helicopter-landing-policy https://www.kuow.org/health-care/2026-05-08/seattle-children...
- shawn_w 3mo agoGP is listing it under exceptions to affordability.
- 3mo ago
- consp 3mo agoDon't want to rain on the parade of something people like but this kind of title tells me nothing and I detest it. It tells me the thing is going to die like any other animal and that's the circle of life yet it wants to create engagement. Please stop publishing like this. Tell me why the spinal condition is important. Tell me why I need to read this article because of [magic?]. Now I know nothing and don't like it.