He forced a raccoon off his boat. Now a ‘heartless’ lawyer is paying a price
A Florida boater who coaxed a raccoon to go overboard is now paying the price.
Clearwater lawyer Thomas Cope gained Internet notoriety back in May when a video surfaced of him shooing a raccoon off his boat. The unwanted visitor apparently was a stowaway, and popped up unexpectedly while Cope and some friends were about 20 miles off the coast.
Had Cope and his buddies shooed the animal away and not spoken about the unfortunate incident again, we may not even know about the raccoon, who likely drowned. But the Florida man and his friends posted an expletive-filled video on Facebook to a private boaters group, WFLA reported.
Someone in the group reportedly sent the video to the media, and Cope was outed as the owner of the boat.
“Git!” yells Cope as the animal desperately scrambles to the edge of the watercraft. “Get off my f---ing boat! What the [bleep] is wrong with you?”
“Put it in gear,” yells another man.
Someone is prodding it with a pole or net.
The raccoon soon slips into the sea, desperately treading water.
“So long sucker!” says a voice off camera.
The caption reads: “’Trash panda came out from hiding 20 miles from dock! Anyone else had these things squat on their boat?”
Viewers of the disturbing clip were disgusted and wanted Cope punished. At least one online petition called for the lawyer to be disbarred due to his “barbaric actions.”
“Thomas Cope deliberately forced a raccoon off his boat 20 miles off shore. He was heartless and callous in doing so. He could have caught it with a fishing net and put it in the boat hold till they arrived back on shore,” reads the Change.org petition which is close to its 5,000 signature goal. “Instead he forced it off the boat and said ‘so long sucker’ with a heartless laugh.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Bar both opened investigations.
The former prosecutor for the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney’s Office issued a public apology, saying that forcing the creature off his boat was the “only realistic option” because it may have been “rabid” and “unpredictable.”
FWC declined to file charges because the agency could not establish jurisdiction. The Florida Bar recommend he take a “professionalism workshop” in order to stay in good standing, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Cost of the workshop: $750.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 1:57 PM.
