Since this post is blowing up, I figured I should go ahead and clarify some questions I’m seeing in the tags
Did you really create Dashcon?
Yeah, when I was like 15. The con happened when I was 17.
Were you the person in the StrangeAeons video?
Also yes. Nessie is short for Lochlan. They named me after the Loch Ness Monster.
Are you associated with Dashcon 2?
No, however we did speak a few months back and they gave be a presentation on their business model and plan and honestly it seems pretty legit. They did say I’m welcome to come and would like to have me host a rabies/rabies pride panel (I’m a certified rabies educator), however last we spoke they were trying to figure out their budget for a flight. Obvi they are taking more care with their budget than the original Dashcon did, so I get it.
Are you really a raccoon biologist?
Among other things. I conduct research on interactions between humans and raccoons with support from an accredited institution and IRB approval. Right now I’m studying interactions between tourists and the critically endangered pygmy raccoon of Cozumel. However, as tourism behaviors start in one’s own backyard, I also study wildlife habituation issues in tourist hotspots in the US as well as how humans interact with—and habituate—raccoons in general.
Yes. Contrary to popular belief, raccoons are not evolved to safely eat garbage or other anthropogenically sourced food. Raccoons are incredibly susceptible to diabetes, obesity? And kidney problems.
Toronto has a large raccoon population and an over abundance of anthropogenic food sources—garbage cans filled with happy meals and the like—and thus a large number of obese, diabetic raccoons.
What else do you do with raccoons?
Aside from my research, I am also the assistant director of Exotic Pet Wonderland animal sanctuary. We are the only specialized sanctuary for “pet” raccoons in the world, but we also have various species of foxes, wild cats, and mink. I frequently collaborate with various state game departments and local law enforcement on animal abuse and neglect cases and to act as a rabies vector specialist. My director and I are who gets called when cops want to actually do the right thing instead of taking the easy way out and euthanizing the animals.
Can we see your raccoons?
These are my “personal” raccoons. Moonshine (bottom) came to me after she was purchased as a baby to be a pet for a human child. Moonshine was “evil” and bit the baby, and now she is my biological daughter. Alabama Toothpick (top) was handed over in a Walmart parking lot child custody style after being illegally kept and her owners deciding she was “too much” to live in their RV. She is blind due to a disfunction of her tapetum lucidum caused by not being fed a proper diet by her previous owners.
I do have a large raccoon enclosure in my home—complete with a floor to ceiling climbable tree sculpture. Both of my girls are currently at the sanctuary torporing (having a long winter’s nap) outside while I prepare to research in the Caribbean for two months. However, I will be taking in 6-10 raccoon temporarily from a case in working, so I should have more in my home to share soon.
