Any advice on convincing my mom to stop feeding raccoons? She knows they can carry rabies and never takes me seriously when I try to warn her about things like that. How do you convince someone to stop doing something dangerous when facts don’t work?

why-animals-do-the-thing:

Find different facts that will have emotional relevance. 

So far it hasn’t worked approaching her with straight science that doesn’t make her feel anything: unless you’re familiar with rabies, it’s scary, but it’s not something that immediately gives a visceral reaction. You know your mom, so ask yourself, what will?

If she’s feeding them because she loves raccoons, talk to her about how much more likely nuisance animals are to be hit by cars or euthanized because they’re disease vectors and pests. If your family has cats or dogs, talk to her about how dangerous habituated raccoons are to pets and what sort of diseases they might give Fido and Fluffy. 

Look around the outside of your house – where are areas raccoons might start foraging? What could they damage? How close might they come to your house? Then talk to her about what behaviors could start happening because of feeding them. Would they be able to get into the attic or tear up your trash can? If she’s feeding them close to the house or they’re already comfortable right near the doors, talk to her about how fearless habituated raccoons can get and what the cost of post-exposure rabies inoculation for even one person is. 

People often feed wildlife because they don’t understand all the consequences of their actions. Rabies is obscure, but thinking about vet visits and quarantine for injured pets, damaged property, and the cost of human post-exposure medical treatment generally makes the risks much more concrete.