The Time Calvin Coolidge’s Pet Raccoon Was Meant to Be Thanksgiving Dinner

It has become tradition for the president of the United States to pardon a turkey before Thanksgiving symbolically. But Calvin Coolidge took the additional step of pardoning a raccoon and making her a family pet. Yes, a raccoon.

When Rebecca Was on the Menu

Americans send presidents letters or small gifts to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a variety of reasons. But one woman took it a step further in 1926, sending President Calvin Coolidge a raccoon for Thanksgiving to add to his dinner table. The woman even described her choice as having a “toothsome flavor.”

But Coolidge declined to add to the creature to his dinner table. The Boston Herald’s story about the president's pardon declared, “Coolidge Has Raccoon; Probably Won’t Eat It.”

The family brought her inside and named her Rebecca, gifting her a silver-plated collar with her name engraved on it. She joined the family’s other pets, including dogs and canaries.

“It did not take us long to discover that she was no ordinary raccoon but an altogether amiable domesticated creature and an interesting pet,” said First Lady Grace Coolidge in a 1929 magazine article about her time with the raccoon.

Rebecca became a popular attraction at the White House, with First Lady Grace Coolidge bringing her out for the traditional Easter Egg Roll. The raccoon had a short leash that allowed her to be down on the ground so children could pet her, while still sticking close by, as she had started a habit of running away from staffers.

A local police officer also brought a male raccoon to the White House as a companion for Rebecca; however, the raccoon, named Rueben, escaped frequently, including an incident that stopped traffic on Pennsylvania Ave. He later escaped the White House and never returned, leaving Rebecca to be the sole raccoon at the home again.

Rebecca took a liking to human food, with the First Lady noting that she enjoyed eating corn muffins. She also noted that Rebecca enjoyed playing in a partially filled bathtub with a cake of soap.

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In the final days of the Coolidge presidency, the family sent Rebecca to the Rock Creek Park Zoo so she could live her remaining days with other raccoons. But she had a less-than-ideal life at the zoo, which may have led to her demise after being pampered at the White House.

As White House housekeeper Ellen Riley later noted in a magazine article about Rebecca’s time at the zoo: “She did not get on well there — was very snooty to the common coons with whom she had to live and finally got sick and died.”

Why a Raccoon?

Today, most Americans will have turkey on their tables along with plenty of sides. Some may also include chicken or ham. But a raccoon is not likely to grace a Thanksgiving table this year.

That wasn’t always the case, with the raccoon providing food for Americans for decades. Enslaved people would hunt raccoons and use the meat in stews, while small animals like raccoons and squirrels would feed families on the frontier and supply them with pelts for the fur trade.

But raccoons began to fall out of favor as factory farms began to produce more chicken, beef, and pork for affordable prices in the 20th century, pushing the raccoon back into the woods and off the dinner table.