About ten years ago, I lived in a pretty populated area. Our neighborhood bordered two of the largest roads in the area and the average lot size was 1/4 acre. We had street lights and the school bus practically emptied the entire bus on the corner one house away from us (lots and lots of kids). The first time we saw a racoon in our back yard during the middle of the day, I called animal control. They, in no uncertain terms, told me they would do nothing about a healthy looking racoon out during the day. They said it had become perfectly normal for racoons to be out during the day, primarily due to us - eliminating their natural habitat, etc. We had repeated racoon sightings while living there and one of them took up residence in a tree in our back yard and had a litter.
There's a big difference between this and the original post - the original poster's racoon was acting sick. But the 'any daytime racoon is sick' is no longer a strict rule everywhere, according to animal control in my neck of the woods.
Keith
I was raised in northeastern NC and on a farm by the woods. Coons doing more than darting from one cover to another near populations of people in daylight are normally well, not normal. It's not rare in that area to see them sometimes along the edge of a cornfield in a wooded area in daylight, but they will run away if they become aware of people, dogs, etc... There are no absolutes but daylight action in the open would have my finger on the trigger, just in case.
