He's feeding them hot dogs!
*Originally published on November 12, 2020:
James Blackwood, of Nova Scotia, Canada, (aka the Raccoon Whisperer) has been working with raccoons for more than 20 years. He feeds dozens of them from his deck each day and has amassed quite a following on YouTube.
On November 3, 2020, while we Americans were all glued to our televisions and smartphones waiting for election results, Blackwood was up in frigid Canada, sitting on his back deck, hand-feeding eight pounds of hotdogs to a mob of famished raccoons. This particular YouTube video has over 24 million views, but if you're hooked, you can go back through his YouTube channel and watch hundreds (yes, hundreds) of videos dating back to 2011.
Watch the November 3 feeding here:
Blackwood's backstory is really sweet:
"Been rehabbing raccoons for 20 years now ... This was my wife's project and she died in 2003 of cancer and begged me on her death bed to take care of her raccoons and cats and her mother," he says on his YouTube bio. "I honored her wishes and took care of the cats and her mother for the next ten years. I have two rescue cats that live here, Connor and Charlotte, but they stay indoors."
The raccoons live in the woods nearby Blackwood's home and come by once a day for food. He also explains that rabies is not a concern because of the cold climate, but the raccoons do experience "Feline Distemper." He makes sure that the raccoons on his property are "treated for disease, ticks, fleas, and worms."
What do you think? Could you rehabilitate or be-friend a family of raccoons? Isn't this precious? Tell us in the comments!