Not long after I came to Canada, a cute raccoon appeared in the backyard of the house where I lived. The raccoon looked very hungry, and soon it ate up all the food scraps it could find in the backyard. I leisurely admired its silly behavior while eating, but I inadvertently saw fear and anxiety in its eyes, strictly speaking, fear of me, a human being, which is a look I have never seen in any other animal in Canada and the United States.

1. Why is it so scared?

        I thought about the reasons and finally understood after searching online that it was because many people were discriminating and hostile to raccoons. But why do people have good intentions towards other animals that occasionally intrude into our living areas, even wolves, insects, tigers, and leopards that threaten our lives, but why do Canadians discriminate and even hostile towards such a cute, harmless and even kind raccoon?

        和當地人交流了解到浣熊給人們造成糟糕印象的原因主要有 4 個: 1、浣熊會侵占人 類的房子並破壞它; 2、浣熊會攻擊人; 3、浣熊帶來傳染病; 4、浣熊會翻垃圾找吃的，所以把我們的環境搞得一團糟。

        Regarding these issues, I carefully looked into the living habits of raccoons and found that this was not the case.

        1、侵占人類房子

        從世界各地、從歷史到現在看這種例子其實並不多，好像也就那麽幾例，但經過互聯網的傳播給人的印象好像浣熊是一個入室行盜並且將房子據為己有的慣犯。其實浣熊入住的往往是人類已經廢棄很久的的房子。如果這個房子已經被你廢棄了，那麽浣熊拿來再利用一下應該是物盡其用吧。

        2. Raccoons often attack people

        However, according to my personal experience and observations as well as the results of online searches, like all animals, raccoons will never attack humans first if humans do not attack them intentionally. Their attacks on humans are completely instinctive, just like all other animals. When humans attack them or drive them away maliciously, they will react instinctively—frightened, nervous, running away and stretching out their claws—regardless of whether it is a human or other animal in front of them, or even a tree that does not move, they will be attacked instinctively.

        3. Raccoons carry infectious diseases

        Can raccoons transmit infectious diseases to humans? Possibly, but what animal -- any animal that lives in close proximity to humans -- can't transmit infectious diseases to humans? Cats, dogs, rats?

        In this way, the above three reasons for hating raccoons are actually imposed on raccoons by people. In fact, many animals are even worse than raccoons in these aspects. In other words, the fourth reason really makes people hate raccoons: they rummage through human garbage and look for food in garbage dumps. They pollute the human environment! The space and living habits they live in are too close to those of humans. This is their misfortune. They rely to a large extent on the leftovers thrown away by humans to survive, and they even rely on the care of humans to survive. They knew that humans were hostile to them, but they still took the risk to come to places where humans live because they were forced to do so by life! It was this seemingly harmless behavior of the raccoon that triggered the strong hostility of such kind people towards the raccoon, which was indeed beyond my expectation.

        在這個國家，當任何動物受到威脅時，善良的人們總是願意保護它們，就如同人們對豺狼虎豹的同情是一樣的，雖然這些動物非常兇猛，但當這些猛獸受到傷害或是身處絕境時，人們還是會不計成本的去保護這些猛獸。

        However, people's sympathy for animals gradually disappeared from raccoons. People can sympathize with fierce beasts that pose a life threat to humans, but they lose this love for weak raccoons. The reason is simple. The former are far away from our living areas and only appear occasionally in our living areas. When they appear around us, they bring changes and fun to our lives; while raccoons live around us, and their living habits interfere with human daily life, which makes us begin to hate them and even hostile to them. The government has to design special trash cans for them so that they cannot open the lids of the trash cans, so that they cannot get the food that humans have discarded - the food that raccoons rely on for survival. It just makes our environment a little dirty and makes us uncomfortable.

          Humans, the smartest creatures on this planet, can sometimes be so selfish and cruel!

        人們普遍有一種心理: 結論預設。就是人類中的大部分人當他由於某些原因對某個人或某種動物產生了偏見的時候，往往從此開始不加鑑別和不假思索的對這個人或動物一概否定， 所有的錯誤都是這個人或動物的錯，即使他(它)根本沒有做錯什麼，就比如浣熊。人類有意無意強加或誇張了浣熊上述的三條罪狀，只是為了讓我們名正言順的、心安理得的驅逐它們、傷害它們而不被我們的良心譴責。我們界定一個動物有益還是有害完全取決於動物對人類有益還是有害，出發點永遠是站在我們人類的立場上，這是浣熊的可悲之處。

        As I write this, I think of the campaign to eradicate the four pests during the Cultural Revolution in China. At that time, sparrows were defined as harmful birds because they ate food. Therefore, sparrows were hunted and killed in China. To this day, many Chinese people believe that sparrows are pests. This is how people judge the goodness or badness of animals based on whether they are beneficial to us humans.

         But this is Canada after all, and Canadians don't exactly apply that way of thinking to raccoons.

        Kind people are closest to God, so we should treat this weak group with God's eyes instead of human eyes. I believe that once Canadians understand this truth, they will show human kindness and tolerance when they face raccoons again.

        我是一個堅定的佛法修行者，相信六道輪迴因果報應的道理，相信我們真正的生命要經過 生生世世無數次的輪迴轉生，不同的時期可能是不同的人也有可能是不同的動物甚至是植 物。從這個觀點出發，此刻出現在你面前的浣熊和其他所有動物一樣都和我們有著某種聯繫。 所以每當我看到弱小生命那無助的表情和驚恐的眼神時，我的心中總是充滿哀傷。他們的命運就掌握在人類這個強大的物種手裡，就掌握在你的手裡。面對面前這個無助的生命，面對冰天雪地裡一個幾乎凍僵的生命，面對一個零下 20 度的風雪中趴在你窗戶上向裡張望的生命， 我不知道有什麼理由讓我們拒絕給它一口飯吃，盡量讓他的生命延續下去; 我不知道有什麼理由將自己已經倒入垃圾桶裡的剩飯剩菜殘忍的用它永遠無法打開的鐵桶包裹起來使它無法偷食——而這僅僅是因為它們弄散了我們的垃圾，麻煩我們重新收拾一下垃圾。將心比心，如果此刻站在風雪中的那個飢寒交迫的動物是你，你希望那個站在屋裡的生命怎樣對待你?

        Everyone has a hidden heart! There was one time when I saw a raccoon I was feeding crying while eating. Thinking about their situation and their future, I couldn't help but burst into tears. Fortunately, there was no one next to me, so I could accompany it and cry silently without any scruples. As a living being, we can be compassionate to those wolves, insects, tigers and leopards that may even destroy our lives, but we want to kill the raccoons that only make our lives a little inconvenient, and call it for their own good. How can we bear it!

        我默默的告訴它，好好的活著，不要再造業，來生投胎做人，那時你能夠駕馭自己的命 運，能夠利用人身好好修煉，永不墮入輪迴之苦。

        Second, will feeding or treating raccoons well disrupt the ecological balance? Will it make raccoons lose their ability to survive in the wild?

        有些人根深蒂固的認為餵食浣熊會破壞大自然的平衡甚至會使浣熊失去野外生存能力。我不想去探討這樣深奧的話題，我也不懂這樣深刻的話題，我只是直覺的認為: 偶然餵食一下浣 熊肯定不會破壞大自然的平衡，也不可能讓浣熊失去野外生存的能力。因為無論我或是人們再怎們宣傳浣熊的無害，餵食浣熊的人永遠是偶然的和極少數的。短時間的偶然的施捨是救浣熊之急，是救命! 就像一個人肚子餓了快餓死了，你不給他吃東西還告訴他: “我不給你吃東西是為了你好，我不能讓你失去野外生存的能力”。這不是很殘忍嗎?

        People feeding animals is a natural expression of evil. People who do this are simply doing it to live up to their conscience and make themselves feel better. It is God's will! There is really no need to elevate this matter to the level of natural balance. We just do it for convenience regardless of right or wrong. In fact, apart from God, who knows whether their behavior is right or wrong? 

        I know Canadians are very kind. They are just used to a certain way of thinking: raccoons are inconvenient for us, so we regard them as unwelcome animals. In fact, apart from this shortcoming, raccoons are animals that live around us and are very close to people. What the young life does is only for its own survival. It does not know that its behavior brings trouble to humans. However, we cruelly drive them away from our sight in a climate of minus 20 degrees. When you see its terrified eyes, you will know how much harm we have brought to them.

        I hope people will stop harming this weak and lovely life; I hope the gods will bless the raccoons to live forever and peacefully in Canada, this free, kind and beautiful land.

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(Thankfully, through the efforts of my colleagues, this article has been published by the local media. Perhaps it will play a small role in improving the situation of raccoons. I am very grateful for this.)