"Good riddance"

This morning, right outside of my office, lying in the gutter, is the corpse of a raccoon. I always stop to take a look at roadkill; I'm interested in seeing what kind of an animal it was, so I have a better idea of what kinds of animals we have living around us in the urban environment.

This particular raccoon looked fairly young. As far as auto-assisted animal deaths go, his wasn't too gruesome. The only signs of violence were a curd of coagulated blood sticking out of his mouth, and a slightly unnatural twist to his spine.

I only paused to look at the body for a second, then went into my office. As the door closed, a passing perambulator said, "Good riddance," loudly enough so that I'd hear.

The speaker could have just been a heartless bastard, trivializing another's upset for a dead animal. They could also be speaking honestly, and actually hoping that raccoons are exterminated. Reality remains: the urban environment is and always has been an environment. We shouldn't strive for an abiotic utopia, as none could ever possibly exist. If the raccoons don't occasionally go through your green bin, the freegans will.

Raccoons are as much a part of our existence in cities as we city-dwellers ourselves are.

The pictured raccoon, very much alive, was photographed by Leanne Eisen.