$5K Reward Offered for Info on Raccoon Shot in Head by Crossbow, Later Euthanized

By Bay City News Service:

A national nonprofit announced Wednesday that it is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the West Oakland crossbow shooting of a raccoon over the weekend that was later euthanized.

The male adult raccoon was found stumbling in a church parking lot at Center and 10th streets in Oakland on Sunday morning, according to Cotati-based nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund. Someone had apparently shot the raccoon with a crossbow, ALDF officials said.

Good Samaritans brought the raccoon to Wildcare, an urban wildlife hospital in downtown San Rafael, according to the nonprofit. Medical staff removed four high-impact aluminum bolt darts found in the soft tissue of the animal’s body, ALDF officials said.

A fifth dart was removed from the raccoon’s head and staff decided to euthanize the 15-pound animal to relieve him of its pain, according to ALDF. Medical staff said the raccoon would not have been able to survive the head injury. The raccoon’s body was then sent to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife for a necropsy, ALDF officials said.

“This is one of the more traumatic and malicious injuries I’ve ever seen,” Wildcare solutions manager Kelle Kacmarcik said in a statement. The suspect or suspects can face misdeameanor charges, a year in prison and a $20,000 fine under state law, nonprofit officials said. Felony charges can include up to three years in prison and $20,000 fine, according to the nonprofit.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Oakland Animal Services at (510) 535-5602.

Photos, video courtesy the Animal Legal Defense Fund.