The Feds and The Raccoons

Walking Pundit (my ailing 9-year-old golden retriever) in the woods this morning there was a bunch of warning posters on the trees:

"Rabid Raccoons sighted. Keeps dogs on leash." (- that'll be the day). There was a helpful picture of the dangerous beast for the benefit of us ignorant urban types, which from a distance could have been taken from nearby bushes. But on closer inspection it seemed to have been cut and pasted from a wild animal website.

We were walking through Dumbarton Oaks, a spectacularly ornate and ornamental garden in the Upper Georgetown section of D.C., which has been happily under-visited by lawnmowers and fertilizers. Its run by the Department of the Interior.

We wandered through the woods into an adjoining section of Rock Creek Park, where I noticed there were no more posters.

Now, as I understand it, Rock Creek is run by the National Parks Service, which is a Division of the Department of the Interior, which also runs Dumbarton Oaks without NPS help.

I wonder if anyone can shed light on this?

My main concern is this: do the raccoons understand the divergent roles of the various Federal Government departments? What would happen if they were to stray into the Parks Service territory? Would they get arrested in one, and shot-on-sight in the other? Just a Brit pondering the wonders of the US of A......And, if you're a lawyer, in which territory would you advise my dog to be bitten by one?