Turning the tables on Predators? ** don't read if you're squeamish

[FuzzyFarms]

My hubby has trapped some coons. We just skinned and gutted them and let the chickens have at it. (BTW, they won't eat the guts anyhow--at least mine didn't. Found that out by simple observation, not because we tried to feed it to them...)

We didn't have any problems. If I had that many critters, I'd feed them to the dogs the same way too. I know wifey doesn't like the idea of it, but you're not asking to replace the whole diet with coon...just a little.

As far as diseases go, ignorance IS bliss, but you can't live your life afraid of what you might get. That's why you have immune systems. You think a dog or chicken isn't going to eat a dead carcas because it wasn't cooked? or because it might have a disease?

 

[handyman42]

TexasTony, Just my 2 cents worth but I feed my chickens scraps (whatever they may be) because a chicken is a garbage disposal. Think back 1,000 years and they didn't have Tractor Supply or Farmers Co-op to get a nice neat 50lb sack of feed from. they feed them what they had. I've heard of other people boiling (easiest way to do it.) coons and feeding them to their chickens and I've even fed cooked chicken to my chickens (don't hate). So I'd say why pass up a literally endless supply of raw protein? Especially when next year I'll be raising my cockerels I hatch out for meat purposes. And if coon is fit for a human to eat
(my grandparents were dirt poor when they were first married and had BBQ'd coon frequently on their table) then it's fit for a chicken. I'd say skin em, boil em then just throw the carcass in there bones and all and you'd be surprised how much they can eat of that sort of thing in a day. Mine picked a whole chicken carcass, bone clean, in 1 day. Just my 2 cents, good luck with it.

 

[idreamofsilkies]

I think drowning them is the most humane way. Everyone is making assumptions that are not accurate. I have drowned twice in my life. Both times being pulled out of the water an revived. I have also revived a few people that drowned an failed to revive a few people to. I have also been around shootings an every other type of death you can think of. There is no such thing as instant death. Drowning way more humane than shooting no matter how well placed the shot.

CO poising is even better. Not that way but low level CO like 20% CO. To much burns the lungs but at something like 20% they just go to sleep an the body shuts down.

An animal put to sleep by CO is harmless to others. Your body produces CO already anyway so getting it in your system by ingestion shouldn't be harmful. The danger of CO is that when it is inhaled it attaches to the hemoglobin in your blood an gets stuck an the hemoglobin cant attach to to Oxygen or CO2 that it needs to to move it threw the body.


When you cook anything in a closed fire grill you turn a lot of the carbon in the food your cooking in to CO an you eat that.

All methods of dying are painful. I can't speak personally about CO poisoning, closest I've come to any death by O2 displacement was when I stupidly left my car running in the garage and got pretty ill when I opened the garage door back up and stepped inside. I have heard of people killing themselves that way. Oops!

Nearly drowning was frightening experience for me. Why our perceptions are different I couldn't tell you, but it could be due to the fact that I did not loose consciousness and did not have to be revived.I remember an immense sense of panic and incredibly primal fear. You begin to panic, which uses more oxygen, and you can't fight your bodies urge to gasp, but your body closes your airway and you feel just terrified because you can't breathe! Your body is confusing you because you have voluntary control over your breathing and yet you do not! Horrifying.

I had a boyfriend in high school, and his dad would always drown chipmunks. Why I don't know, but I remember seeing him do it once, and it was the worst thing I'd ever seen in my life.They way the little guy panicked and his arms thrashed about. His little cheeks puffed out. It was sad.

If killing a predator is something you must do, do it. I'm definitely not leading authority on telling people how to live their lives, I barely know anything about predators. I've always been lucky to have a secure coop. As op has proven by his large amounts of animal carcasses, killing them wont deter different predators from coming back. If I ever found myself in a position where I had to kill a small mammal, I'd try my best to shoot it, but I understand that its hard to catch them in the act with your gun ready. It makes me really sad to see people talk about killing animals in horrible ways, but I need to learn not everyone is as sappy as me. Sorry to vent, I know I was warned before I clicked on this thread. Disregard if I've upset you. I'm not that knowledgeable. :/

 

[handyman42]

I just do it (what I would assume as the fastest most painless way possible) by shooting them in the forehead with a .22. Then walk away for a minute then go back and deal with disposal. Totally feeding them to the chickens now though. That'll be ALOT easier

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A hole in the ground some quick or slacked lime and a shovel to add a little dirt on the top of the lime and carcass will likely solve all your disposal problems. If you wanted to feed the vermin to your hens I recommend hanging it up by the hind legs from your fence. If you have an insufficiency of hens to quickly clean up the vermin you could end up with a bad case of Botulism in your flock and how are you going to explain that to the little lady?

 

[eggsellentfarms]

This may not be what you want to hear, but if you're putting so much effort into disposing of raccoons, why not just do what it takes to keep your flock coon safe?
I raised my flock on the edge of town for 8 years, never locked the coop at night, and never lost any to predators. Recently I moved farther out in the country at the edge of the mountains and have lost many to coons. At first, I'd get up in the middle of the night and grab my gun and go on patrol if I heard anything. One night I shot a coon trying to get into my ducks' run. But, like many have posted, they will just keep coming back again and again. I sleep much better at night now that I know all my flock are locked in the coop and small, predator proof run. And I've never lost any to predators that were locked up.
I know how angry we might get when something kills our animals, but we have to remember, they are just living their life and we can't blame them for wanting a nice meal of chicken or duck. So if we just take a few precautions we can keep them from hurting our animals and just coexist in peace.

Also, I hate to waste anything, especially potential food, but with all the terrible diseases and parasites that coons could potentially be carrying, I try to make my place as unattractive as possible to them and keep my distance.

 

[Triple Willow]

If the population of wild animals is never reduced you end up with a lot of animals with not enough to eat and plenty of disease among them. Or in cases like with white tail deer, MANY are hit by drivers which is not only dangerous but also expensive and if it were to happen to an excessive extent EVERYBODY'S auto insurance premiums go up. We are seeing this now nationwide in housing insurance because of all the hurricanes, tornados, etc. Premiums have gone up nationwide because of what has happened and is happening in certain areas of the country.

Years ago wild game is what people survived on. People didn't have a choice! Maybe some of your ancestors came here after the invention of modern refrigeration, mass production of meat sources and supermarkets. Mine didn't. Mine had to get out and hunt/trap what they ate. I'm here as well as the rest of my family so it didn't kill them. If wild game did kill people we would hear about it regularly because people still hunt/trap wild game and eat it. We don't hear the health insurance folks complaining about those nuts eating wild game and sick all the time costing them a fortune. I've never heard of a life insurance company questioning anybody about do they eat wild game and refuse them coverage for it. It amazes me how far we have got away from our roots.

Of course if a person is going to eat any wild animal they should look at it very closely checking for sickness, disease, parasites, etc. And when processing it precautions should be taken. As I have heard an official with the USDA (who is in charge of your food safety) say, roadkill would be safe to eat if it is cooked thoroughly. I wish I had all those coons that people toss. They would feed a lot of hungry people and cooked correctly they are delicious. Around here we eat rabbits, squirrels, coons, deer, game birds, fish, etc. And of course in other parts of the country people eat different animals. We aren't restricted to the supermarket for something to eat. lol There may come a day (I expect it to happen) that a lot of people will wish they knew how to catch and cook a wild animal. They are probably going to get real hungry someday.

I wish I lived near the OP, I would solve his coon disposal problem! lol
Check out the state "Hunters for the Hungry" programs.

 

[eggsellentfarms]

Just to clarify, my comments weren't intended to oppose responsible hunting. That's a whole other topic. I personally do not hunt, but only because the price of a license and tags is too high to make hunting financially reasonable in my area. Besides I don't call what the OP is doing hunting, it's more along the lines of "predator control". But that brings up a good suggestion, if the OP could find hunters in his area that were interested he might be able to get them to come and reduce his coon problem for free, and at the same time the coons would not be wasted, but used by those who know what to do with them.

 

[Triple Willow]

Just to clarify, my comments weren't intended to oppose responsible hunting.  That's a whole other topic.  I personally do not hunt, but only because the price of a license and tags is too high to make hunting financially reasonable in my area.  Besides I don't call what the OP is doing hunting, it's more along the lines of "predator control".  But that brings up a good suggestion, if the OP could find hunters in his area that were interested he might be able to get them to come and reduce his coon problem for free, and at the same time the coons would not be wasted, but used by those who know what to do with them.

Excellent idea. He could contact a local game processor or taxidermist to find somebody to come take the animals. If he can't find anybody that way he could contact his state Hunters for the Hungry organization and I bet they could help.

 

[eggsellentfarms]

Quote: Another idea. If the OP is anywhere near the ocean, he could save the coon carcasses for crab bait. I have no experience with using raccoons for crab bait, but I have had success with nutria. A while back we had an explosion of the nutria population, and they started damaging my garden and drip irrigation. I trapped a few, skinned them, threw them in the freezer, and the next time I went crabbing used them for bait. It was quite satisfying to turn nuisance nutrias into fresh crab meat.