Caught him in trap - first try!

A couple weeks ago "an animal" attacked my chicken. I have one new hen in the front who is in quarantine. The "animal" tried very hard to get into her cage setup. It almost made it. There were feathers EVERYWHERE! We have noticed that her uneaten chicken food is no longer there in the am. SO... I set this trap up last night (and partially got stuck when I was putting the "bait" in) lol. My BF had to come save me.

Anyhow - The bait consisted of: Three small slices of watermelon, a smear of peanut butter and a sprinkling of chicken crumbles. And in the morning:



We actually checked the trap around midnight and a critter had pulled some of the food out through the side. DOH! We thought it was smarter than us and wasn't going to get caught. Well it did! The odd thing: The food was on a paper plate. When we checked on the trap - the paper plate was gone. There was just a very small tear from it remaining. It ate the plate, too??? It didn't eat the melon rinds. I guess the plate was tastier? Odd.

 

We aren't allowed to kill them here, to my knowledge.... or I can kill them but I can't shoot them? I'm going to be calling my Dept of Health and Dept of Agriculture soon to talk about getting a permit to sell my eggs, so I'm going to ask about killing these guys too. I've read so much online - it's just confusing to me.

Either way - I don't know if I could kill it. The dang thing was so cute - and much smaller than the last one we caught. I thought it was a youngster, but it almost looked like she/he had nipples like it was a nursing mom? I dunno - I'm no expert!

We drove about six miles away and released it in a forested park. I don't know if we're allowed to do that, either! I hope 6 miles was far enough away.

 

Nana - At some point I'd also like to sell my chicken meat as well. I'd also like to sell my quail meat and quail eggs. We live on a horse farm that I'm trying to turn into a farm for other uses. We've got a bit of unused land - so I'd like to know what the rules are before I start breaking them.

I know the theory on rehoming them is someone elses problem - but what am I supposed to do if I'm not "allowed" to kill them here? Kill them quietly? I didn't release it in a populated area.

Either way, if six miles isn't far enough - I'll have to figure something else out. I'll call animal control and ask what they'd "like" me to do if I catch any more. Maybe they take them and euth them?