No wild pets

A rather touching story came out of Seattle last week when a family spent lots of money suing the state to get back their pet raccoon. A judge ruled they broke the law and could not recover their “wild animal.”

Eight years ago, the family found “Susie,” a baby raccoon, starving to death near its dead mother. They did what a lot of folks would do, they took it home and nursed it back to good health. It became a “beloved member of the family.” Recently, someone reported it to game wardens, who confiscated the pet.

That reminded me of how I found out there are similar laws in Montana. That was a great surprise to be because, like most old reporters, I thought I knew everything. This is my report from June of 2005:

Barely missed getting arrested this week for trying to be a “good guy.” It started with Sheriff’s logs. One of the hundred-plus entries from Sunday said – “Injured fox on West Valley Road. Several pups in the ditch.” During my 6:45 broadcast, I mentioned over the air my concern about the fox family.

Later, while gassing my car, I met a ranch couple from out that way. The man said he heard me that morning and had seen the mother fox lying in the road right after it had been hit by a vehicle. She was still alive, so he pulled he off the roadway near the pups, who were hanging around the culvert. I got the exact location and went out to check.

There was no sign of the mother fox’s body, but I did see one small pup sticking its head out of the culvert. That’s when I went back to town and checked out my live trap and found it was too small for catching foxes. My plan was to capture the kits before they starved. However, Iris made it clear that no matter how “cute” they were, putting wild animals in the garage was not one of my options.

I went to the Fish and Game office to borrow a larger live trap. Warden Chief Ed Kelly told me in clears terms that I was asking them to help me break the law. I got the idea that he felt my plan was akin to borrowing his revolver so I could rob a bank. Ed led me back to his office where he made me a copy of the law regarding “Restrictions on Possession of Wild Animals – 50-23-101, Paragraph (4), “wild animal” means a skunk, fox, raccoon or bat. Other species of nondomesticated animals known to be capable of transmitting rabies may be added to this list through the Department of Public Health and Human Services…”

Then we went to law 50-23-102: “Exceptions. No person may possess a wild animal unless he possessed it for at least six months prior to January 1, 1982, or… it is contained in a zoological exhibition… ad infinitum.” There it was in official black and white, another rule to protect the great ignorant and unwashed masses from our own ignorance.

There were a couple of personal mental factors at work: (1) I think baby foxes are among the cutest, smartest and personable animals in the wild. (2) I do not know of anybody around here who got rabies from a fox. But, I could see my rescue plan was down the drain. I drove back out to West Valley Road to put food out for the orphan foxes, even though I knew they were probably doomed by losing their mother at such a young age. Then a lady from a nearby house told me there were several pups around and she was putting out food and water. (End of Lesson)

Looking back to that time, I probably would have been a law-respecting citizen by ratting on her to Warden Chief Ed Kelly.

G.George Ostrom is an award-winning columnist. He lives in Kalispell.