The raccoon dog: cute, wild and a terrible idea for a pet

Are you an insomniac show-off, who has dense undergrowth and a pond in your garden? Are you keen to wipe out all the local toads and frogs, and fairly relaxed about having hookworm, flatworm or fatal fox tapeworm? If so, then the raccoon dog is the pet for you. And you may be able to buy one at an animal market in Clitheroe, Lancashire, for £60.

The RSPCA would prefer that you didn’t, however: raccoon dogs are wild animals, one of the earliest forms of dog, and related to foxes and wolves (although no relation to actual raccoons, despite visual similarities) – they often go into a sort of torpor in winter, are mainly nocturnal and are certainly not happy in market cages or houses. So people who keep them as pets tend to get sick of them. This can lead to raccoon dogs being released into the countryside, where they multiply rapidly, with disastrous consequences for local wildlife.

After being introduced to Russia and other European countries from east Asia 80 years ago, mainly to be hunted for their fur, the raccoon dog has spread far and wide. In Finland, where a million cubs are born annually, they prey on frogs and toads, with the southernmost part of the country greatly depleted, according to PA Åhlén of the Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management in neighbouring Sweden. Sweden is now trying to eradicate them, while the country still has a few frogs, toads and ground-nesting birds left.

Beyond these difficulties countries have encountered with the superficially cute raccoon dog, it’s the word “eradicate” that makes me want to tear my hair out, because we face a well-worn story when it comes to exotic pets: we discover a cute, fluffy, huge or handsome new creature – parakeet, turtle, mink or big cat – and buy it as a pet, only to get horribly injured by the animal, or just bored, exhausted or overwhelmed looking after it. We let it go in the wild, where the animal reproduces like billy-o, and then we have to have it put down or mass murder it, because the new species is playing havoc with us or our native wildlife.

There aren’t many raccoon dogs in Britain yet, but as they are so fluffy and cuddly-looking and only the size of a medium dog, they are on the increase. It is still perfectly legal to stuff them into a cramped cage and flog them to someone who hasn’t a clue how to look after them. Do we ever learn? Sadly, I think not.