“It’s ridiculous; it really is. (We were) just trying to feed it and give it a chance,” Helms said. “We found a baby that fell out of the tree when we were mowing. It was just a wee little baby. All we were going to do was feed it, and when it got big enough to fend for itself we were going let it go.”
Helms said he has had about 15 raccoons in his home throughout his lifetime, plus other animals including foxes, camels, ostriches and emus.
His mother, Bonnie Lincoln, has had permits for raccoons in the past, but Helms said that did not cross his mind.
“I really didn’t realize it was that big of a deal,” Helms said. “It wasn’t like I was going to keep it, because I know how they are like when they get bigger and we got kids now, so I didn’t want them around a big raccoon.”
Champaign County Game Warden Jeffrey Tipton cited Helms and Hopper in September.
Tipton was notified about the raccoon when a Champaign County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the home for a vandalism complaint on Helm’s car.
Hopper, known as Ellie Mae, a character from the Beverly Hillbillies TV series, in her hometown in Kentucky for bringing in strays, said this was her first pet raccoon. She described it as similar to a kitten.
“It would sleep next to me. It would cuddle up on the couch and suck on my arm,” Hopper said.
She said it would follow her around the house and became her “sidekick.”
“It was very friendly,” Hopper said. “I definitely would have kept it if it was up to me. I don’t want any animal to die, especially after getting close to it.”
The couple released the animal after the game warden cited them.
Helms said he doubted it had a good chance of surviving on its own because it was being fed cat milk by a bottle for a month while the couple had it.
Wild animals are legal if acquired from breeders, but people cannot take them from the wild, said Brett Deatty, Ohio Division of Wildlife supervisor for Clark and Champaign counties.
“It’s always best to leave wild animals in the wild because that is where they are most likely to survive,” Deatty said.
He said many people take wild animals in with good intentions, but end up doing more harm that good. Wild animals can also be unpredictable as pets and spread diseases, most commonly rabies, Deatty said.
He said these laws are to protect the animals and that all wild animals technically belong to the people of the state of Ohio.
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