Police have issued a warning to residents of Illinois about “zombie raccoons“.

Fox6now.com reports that police in the Riverside, Illinois (a west suburb of Chicago) have issued a warning to residents about raccoons testing positive in the area for distemper.

The disease can cause the inflicted animals to walk on their back legs, stagger and bare their teeth. Thus they are sometimes called “zombie raccoons”. Three raccoons tested positive for distemper in Riverside and had to be euthanized.

Police are issuing the warning so that pet owners will keep an eye on their dogs, cats and other pets. The distemper is airborne contagious and can be spread quite easily from the raccoons to the pets.

While this town is a decent distance from us here in the Bloomington-Normal area, these things can spread through wild animals quite quickly. Pet owners in our area should keep an eye on their animals when they are outside. All residents should also keep an eye out for and report any raccoons acting in an abnormal way to the appropriate officials at animal control. In addition, there is a vaccine for distemper that your veterinarian can give your dogs.

By: Buck Stevens