Well, I probably was overly glib in my excitement about this animal being considered a “nuisance.” In case you’re not a regular reader, you should know that my facetiousness came from my endless discouragement at how often the mammals I draw are terribly endangered. It’s refreshing to have one with a healthy population.

It’s not always true, though, that “they were here first” or that “we invaded them.” In the case of the raccoon dog, for instance, it is considered a “nuisance” in the parts of its range where it was introduced, not where it occurred originally. In cases like, say, a western U.S. city overgrowing to the point where bears and coyotes are having to come into town, thus making “nuisances” of themselves, I certainly agree with you that we’re the nuisances. In other cases, an animal becomes a “nuisance” because we humans have killed off its natural predators, often because we felt they threatened our livestock. There are no easy answers for how we can share the increasingly crowded earth with other animals, but I agree with you that they have just as much business being here as we do. (And I am also against fur, needless to say.)

Red Star Café, thank you! I enjoy your site, too, and thanks for the link.