Is This How A Zombie Apocalypse Begins? Sick Raccoons Caught On Camera
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Police are investigating reports of "zombie-like" raccoons in northeast Ohio.
WKBN-TV reports Youngstown police have received more than a dozen calls in the past three weeks about raccoons acting strangely in the daytime.
Photographer Robert Coggeshall says he was playing with his dogs outside his home last week when one such raccoon approached them. Coggeshall says the animal would stand on its hind legs, show its teeth and fall over backward.
The raccoon Coggeshall saw and 14 others police responded to were euthanized.
The state Department of Natural Resources says the animals were likely suffering from distemper, not rabies. The viral disease causes coughing, tremors and seizures and leads raccoons to lose their fear of humans.
Authorities are asking residents to report raccoons behaving unusually to their local police station.
People on Twitter are intrigued by these zombie-like raccoons.
Reports of "Zombie Raccoons" in the area have been confirmed to be overblown cases of the distemper virus. Actual zombie raccoons can be identified by their slow shuffle, rotting limbs, and calls for "braaaains" in raccooneese.
— Ghostbusters CLE (@CLEGhostbusters) April 5, 2018
Movie:Resident Evil. Underground city in Ohio where Zombie virus escapes called raccoon city. Now Zombie raccoons in Ohio. Coincidence?!!
— Tony Kopf Sr (@kopf_sr) April 5, 2018
2018, am I right?? pic.twitter.com/rP4O0Sk7SR
— Isaac Paul (@Isaac_M_P_) April 4, 2018
We know where this leads. pic.twitter.com/oyEmZM8sl8
— lawprofblawg (@lawprofblawg) April 4, 2018
Spring break maybe?? Are you sure they’re raccoons....
— StevieL (@StevieL99) April 4, 2018
