Tennessee Cops Looking For Person Responsible For Killing and Dumping 11 Raccoons

A Tennessee sheriff’s office is looking for a person that they believe killed almost a dozen raccoons, which is the state’s ‘official wild animal’. The person reportedly then dumped the critters’ dead bodies under a bridge.

The sherrif’s office in Newport posted on Facebook saying,

“Our community has such beauty and then you have a criminal kill these raccoons and throw them under the Bridgeport Bridge.”

The post included pictures of the scene, which showed 11 raccoons dead across the concrete and surrounded by trash under the Bridgeport Bridge. The sheriff’s office said that they were notified of the scene from a resident and the office thanked those who helped clean up the area.

“Thanks to Ron for coming in on his day off and our litter crew to clean up the mess that was left. Trailer full of trash, appliances, tires and removed the raccoons from the area. We will be monitoring this area more often. Thanks for the citizen complaint that we received this morning and glad to get it cleaned up quickly.”

Sheriff C.J. Ball said that it was not clear how the animals had died but that the raccoons “appeared to be eaten by another animal partially,”WATE reported.

“If we receive information of who is responsible, we will contact our DA office to see what we can prosecute the individuals with,” Ball told WATE.

“PLEASE NOTIFY the sheriffs office of illegal dumping and other issues” that cause the county to be “trashed,” the office said, promising litter citations if the office is able to prove to whom the trash belongs.
“This is absolutely ridiculous that some individuals continue to do what they do.”

This article by Hailey Kanowsky was first published by OneGreenPlanet on 3 March 2023. 

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