Caught One....Now What?!

[babalubird]

I have to laugh about your comment about owning the 22 but never used it.

Same here. Furthermore, I wouldn't know HOW to use it.

I'm glad you found a bloodless solution even though I know they are little murderers.

Connie

 

[Sunny Side Up]

In my neighborhood there is an overpopulation of raccoons. Development in this area has actually helped them INcrease in numbers. Their predators are gone, they have easy access to food in the garbage cans & pet dishes, and they don't mind nesting close to humans. Their healthier diets cause an increase in litters too. Their numbers help them feature more frequently in road kill sightings.

Therefore, many folks here have no qualms about killing the raccoons they catch in their traps. Some shoot, others drown. There's no need to relocate them, just as rats & roaches aren't relocated.

Certainly we need to do our part in constructing safe coops for our chickens. And no one is suggesting that every predator animal should be shot on sight. But raccoons in their present numbers are bursting out of their niche here, and getting rid of the occasional nuisance raccoon helps both the local poultry as well as the wildlife.

 

[McGoo]

raccoons biggest predator is rabies. Once they over-populate, there seems to be a major outbreak of rabies that really reduces the numbers. We had one a couple years back and now they are increasing again.

 

[Rode Island Red 2008]

Kill him, or drive 50 miles away to dump him off. make a dart gun go to www.youtube.com and search it its quick and easy:/

 

[ILoveJoe]

First off I released this raccoon by the Ky Dept of Fish and Wildlife guidelines. They stipulate that I can release a trapped animal on 100 contiguous acreas as long as I have the owners permission. I had the owners permission to release him on over a thousand wooded acres that border the Ohio river. It is an hour drive from my house. And a little off road to get him to a nice safe habitat to start his new life. Plenty of water from creeks and fruit and berries as well as an old abandoned house and barn he can defecate in to his little hearts delight. I wish him well and if I trap any members of his family I will take their furry little bodies out to join him.

As I stated in my OP I was not killing this guy, I don't have that in me.

I had to frighten him out of the trap and once he realized he was free he bolted for the trees.

 

[vfem]

Thats what I'm screaming... just take a short drive (or long) and let him go in some random location!

I don't know why the make such retarded laws about wild animal releases.... a wooded area is a wooded area. Either they move in and or happy, or the travel to someone else's property... not your problem. We can't control them, hence "WILD"life.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
Good for you!

 

[theOEGBman]

Quote:
I wish someone would come dump their snakes off here! I havent seen a snake in ages, I miss the things. Well, I havent seen a wild snake anyways,lol. Good job letting him go, if that's what you did. I read the first 4 pages and got bored.

 

[nautical_bouy]

Quote:
I happen to live in an area that relocators seem to like, relocating makes it someone elses problem, it has been my problem many times, I don't want the stray dogs and cats, or the coon or fox that scared your 2 or 3 chickens, I have thousands invested in my animals, I buy feed by the ton, to feed mine, not your strays, and most of all I wish people might stop and think, maybe there are three little kids that live there, if what I caught is sick can is spread anything should it lick popcicle drippings off the play set where those kids spend hours a day.

Thats what gets me, I can buy another flock,pigs, cows, horses like most get a pancake special, it's the what if with the kids, what if you drop off a rabid coon that may incubate for weeks, licks the swings, or smells peanut butter in the handel bar of a 5 year olds bike @ 6AM, now it's 7:30 AM we are all up chores done and the kids go play while breakfast is cooking, the bike swing what ever can carry that virus for a few hours because someone thought no one would mind and they don't have the guts to solve a problem that threatened the new hobby.

I wish people were more honset and just drove up and said they don't have the heart, please take care of it, instead of dropping them off.

 

[ILoveJoe]

Quote:
I too like snakes and don't see them often enough.

I really did let him go and I can assure those concerned that I did not drop him off in front of someone else's coop.

I followed the laws, as I should have. I wouldn't have used a live trap if my intentions toward whatever I captured were other than a humane end to this story.

We took him well off the road away from inhabited dwellings to the back of this property about 3 hundred yards from the river to an old abandoned house and barn with an old orchard of fruit trees and berries in the clearing.

I am satisfied that I did the best thing for that raccoon. I don't think the methods most of these folks described to 'get rid of' this coon would have been as appealing to the coon as this relocation. But thanks everyone for their descriptive methods.

I had to go back and read all the posts from page 2 on.... to see what the 'mudslinging' was all about.

I guess I'll put "growing a set" on my to-do list.