We are OVERRUN with raccoons. I felt the same way you do about killing them, and we have had some serious and simultaneously hilarious problems with them . During hunting season, my husband would take the ones we trapped, and release them 3 counties away in the wildlife management area where he hunted. But the more they just kept coming, trap & release just became overwhelming, plus wherever we released them, we were upsetting THAT area's ecosystem. We finally came to the conclusions that:
A. Raccoons are in no way endangered
B. Where we live, the population is artificially enlarged, due to people and our garbage
C. Raccoons are a likely vector for Equine Protozoal Myelitis, a debilitating neurological disease in horses--and we have several horses (it used to just be opossum, but lately, the evidence is pointing to raccoons carrying the disease as well)
D. Dumping a huge load of raccoons somewhere else was placing an unfair burden and imbalance on the new ecosystem
We began humanely destroying the raccoons we trapped in our chicken-yard area. It's important to note that it takes a LOT of trespassing for them to get that far, and these things were so bold that they were regularly pooping in the bed of my husband's pickup! They're still as plentiful as squirrels, and never seem to stop coming, but the weird thing is that, since we took a more "permanent" stance on getting rid of them, we've have dramatically fewer raccoon sightings. It sounds crazy, but I SWEAR it's like they put the word out among their compatriots!
I very much agree with the previous posters who've said that if you relocate, you should go WAY farther than two miles away, because two miles is nothing to a raccoon--he'll just come right back. And please be VERY careful handling a trap with a live 'coon in it. My first-ever tetanus shot was thanks to a "pet" raccoon when I was a kid.
A. Raccoons are in no way endangered
B. Where we live, the population is artificially enlarged, due to people and our garbage
C. Raccoons are a likely vector for Equine Protozoal Myelitis, a debilitating neurological disease in horses--and we have several horses (it used to just be opossum, but lately, the evidence is pointing to raccoons carrying the disease as well)
D. Dumping a huge load of raccoons somewhere else was placing an unfair burden and imbalance on the new ecosystem
We began humanely destroying the raccoons we trapped in our chicken-yard area. It's important to note that it takes a LOT of trespassing for them to get that far, and these things were so bold that they were regularly pooping in the bed of my husband's pickup! They're still as plentiful as squirrels, and never seem to stop coming, but the weird thing is that, since we took a more "permanent" stance on getting rid of them, we've have dramatically fewer raccoon sightings. It sounds crazy, but I SWEAR it's like they put the word out among their compatriots!
I very much agree with the previous posters who've said that if you relocate, you should go WAY farther than two miles away, because two miles is nothing to a raccoon--he'll just come right back. And please be VERY careful handling a trap with a live 'coon in it. My first-ever tetanus shot was thanks to a "pet" raccoon when I was a kid.