The USDA has kept raccoon rabies out of the central United States for over 30 years by air-dropping fish-flavored ravioli from helicopters.
Each one is a small packet coated in fishmeal with an oral rabies vaccine inside. Raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and skunks find them by smell, bite through, and swallow.
Many animals that consume the bait develop immunity, helping build a protective barrier across populations.
The bait is generally considered safe for pets and tested in many non-target species.
The USDA's Wildlife Services has been running this since 1995. Without the bait program, raccoon rabies very likely would have spread much further west.
A federal program you've probably never heard of is protecting your pets and your kids by feeding wild animals ravioli from a helicopter.
🚨These were her conditions to return to ice-skating:
-She picks the music
-She has full control over how she looks
-She gets to eat whatever she wants. Her coaches can’t starve her anymore
-The choreo will be a collaborative effort w/ her, she gets to put elements in that she wants to
-She decides when she needs a break from training, never pushing past her limit
-And her father has to keep his controlling ass out of her art. She said ‘I love you dad, but you’re not allowed back in.’
Alyssa Liu danced for the joy of it, not for a medal, not for prestige, because she just loves her art.
She retired at 16 - a world champion - because she lost touch with the joy. The men around her were driving her career, starving, shaping and controlling her. She rebelled and cast off the chains to go live her best life as a normal teen girl.
She returned a young woman unapologetically and uncompromisingly in charge of her own joy and passion, here to do it her way, and only her way.
Became world champ at 19 in 2025, ans now gold medalist at 20.