Top Raccoons as pets Some young raccoons, especially orphans, are responsive to human contact and it is tempting to try to make one into a pet. This is rarely a good idea. Raccoons do not recognize the word 'no' and if they decide they want something you'd better not try to take it away. Your priceless collection of Hummel figurines will be destroyed on the first day, your upholstery shredded and your refrigerator emptied of it's contents on a regular basis. The biggest problem with attempting to make a raccoon into a pet comes when the raccoon gets a little older.
Female raccoons reach sexual maturity at one year of age, males at two.
At this point in their development or shortly thereafter, they sometimes become ill-tempered and aggressive. If they become unmanageable they must be released to the wild. Since they've lived in captivity all their lives, they cannot simply be taken out to the country and set free. They don't know how to survive in the wild and will probably suffer a slow death by starvation or, more likely, because they have no fear of humans. Wildlife rehabbers devote countless hours to trying to 'wild up' raccoons who have been kept as pets so that they may survive on their own.