Raccoons and Louisiana Politics 

By: Jim Brown

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy has stirred up a hornet’s nest back in the Bayou State over his Facebook comments of eating a Louisiana delicacy. The Senator had this to say: “Found this raccoon in my backyard. We ate him for breakfast.” He even included a photo of the raccoon. And his Facebook friends went nuts with comments. Who on earth would even consider eating a raccoon? 

Actually, racoons and a host of other wild game are a culinary staple where I come from. And I often received a litany of choice critters. As a sole attorney practitioner in Ferriday, I took about any case that walked in the door. Often, my clients were slow paying, or could not pay anything at all. Hunting has always been quite prevalent in northeast Louisiana, and clients would drop off an array of creatures from the wild. I was never short of deer meat, ducks, wild geese, doves, squirrels, frogs, catfish, and yes, racoons. The assortment of outdoor delicacies seemed endless. And luckily, we had a large freezer in which to pack my culinary acquisitions.