Raccoons are also known as 'trash pandas' on social media. - AFP
Forget dogs, cats and rabbits. The Internet's latest mascots are not known for their cuteness – quite the contrary. In fact, they are considered pests in many countries around the world. Yet these beasts still draw thousands, even millions, of followers on social networks.
Welcome to the age of the "verminfluencers".
Few animals have as bad a reputation as raccoons. The fact that they rummage through city dwellers' garbage for food certainly plays a big part in that. While the Canadian city of Toronto has been waging a fierce war on them for many years, there is one place where they are appreciated, even revered. And that place is the Internet.
Raccoons are increasingly dipping their famously agile paws into the waters of the web. So much so that some of them are starting to seriously overshadow cats, dogs and the various other cute "petfluenceurs" that Internet users adore. Take Pumpkin, for example. This raccoon is followed by more than a million people on Instagram – that's considerably more than Choupette, the Burmese cat of the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
On the social network, this raccoon can be seen eating avocados, lounging on her couch or posing with her book, Pumpkin: The Raccoon Who Thought She Was A Dog, in her paws. The book, written by her owner Laura Young, tells the story of how the animal found a loving home after being abandoned as a youngster by her biological "parents". Happy ending guaranteed. Or in fiction, at least.
Pumpkin actually passed away at the age of four in October 2019. Despite this, fans continue to post messages of support addressed to her owners on her Instagram account. And it's a phenomenon that reflects the younger generations' new-found appreciation of raccoons. They call them "trash pandas" – not without irony – and have devoted a cult following to them on social networks.
The hashtag #racoons appears in nearly 91,500 posts on Instagram, and #racoonoftiktok has 837.5 million views on TikTok.
Pets like any other
Raccoons aren't the only maligned animals to become Internet superstars. Rats, skunks, opossums and weasels are now becoming real influencers, or more precisely "verminfluencers". Their owners showcase them on social networks as they would any other four-legged friend. Playing, eating, sleeping and eating again – such is the daily life of these new icons of the animal kingdom.
Each of their performances provokes the amusement, the wonder, the fascination and the curiosity of Internet users.
In this jungle of usually very staged and stylised posts of dogs and cats, those of the "verminfluencers" seem much more authentic. This can be explained by the unpredictable nature of these animals, which humans have not yet domesticated. Contrary to what social networks suggest, it is not easy to raise a raccoon, a beaver or a possum at home.
Nor is it even legal in many countries.
These animals require special care and can cause significant damage to their owners' homes. But that doesn't discourage some from trying. Data from Google Trends, which tracks the evolution of queries typed into the search engine, show that Internet users have been particularly interested in raccoons, opossums and other "pest pets" over the past five years.
Faced with this popular craze, the owners of verminfluencers often play the card of transparency and try to make their subscribers aware of the difficulties they encounter with their little companions. Such is the case of Danielle Stewart, owner of Rocket, a raccoon with 336,000 followers on Instagram.
Asked by one of her fans about her daily life with her pet, the American owner said that it was basically like having a baby with very sharp vampire teeth, for the rest of her life.
Wild, uncontrollable, impulsive and very demanding of attention, verminfluencers don't look so appealing on paper. However, they melt hearts thanks to their quirky strangeness and their funny nature. They are the emblem of the social awkwardness and inadequacy that many Internet users feel in a world that's constantly changing.
"We’re no longer liking the fluffy animals. We want the weirdos. We want the jaded ones. We want the ones who were kicked out of society," Victoria Armour, a fan of Starfish the opossum told the New York Times in 2019.
And perhaps in a few years, these animal misfits will become as rich and famous as the late, great Grumpy Cat. – AFP Relaxnews
