Reward offered to identify person who shot raccoon with crossbow

A Vancouver wildlife advocacy group is offering a $1,000 reward for information that will help identify the person who shot a raccoon with a crossbow last week.

The incident happened on Wednesday evening in Maple Ridge, four months after a raccoon died in Maple Ridge after being shot with a dart.

A woman living near 248th Street and 122 Avenue was alerted by her daughter that an injured raccoon was walking up their driveway. It was moving slowly and had a crossbow bolt protruding from its jaw.

The woman called the B.C. SPCA and conservation officers, but the first person who was available to rescue the young raccoon was Adrian Walton from Dewdney Animal Hospital, who found out about it through Facebook.

He drove to the neighbourhood, which has an elementary school and a high school nearby, and trapped and sedated the raccoon so it could be brought to the clinic and examined.

X-rays showed that the bolt, which was about 21 inches long, had entered through the raccoon’s jaw and pierced its chest cavity, stomach and intestines. The gravity of the raccoon’s injuries required that it be euthanized.

Walton said it appeared that the animal had been shot within the previous 24 hours. If it had not been euthanized, it would have died slowly from sepsis over the next two or three days.

Adrian Nelson, communications director for the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals (also known as The Fur-Bearers), described the situation as “horrendous.” He said the organization often hears of people trying to solve wildlife conflicts on their own, and he suggested that might have happened in this case.

“We do see people kind of resorting to some pretty crazy tactics when it’s not necessary,” he said. “Rather than trying to get in a professional, they try to take matters into their own hands.”

The Fur-Bearers believe that whoever is responsible for the crossbow attack should be prosecuted, and Nelson hopes the $1,000 reward will help the RCMP and B.C. Conservation Officer Services, which are looking into the incident.

“If it can motivate people to come forward, then we’re happy to do that,” Nelson said.