Caught the First Raccoon of the year!

[stormylady]

He was huge! Not the mini bear one I had hanging out around here last year but a pretty pudgy guy I could hardly lift the live trap he was in.

Luckily I got him before he got any of my girls!

This year I don't have to dispatch them myself, yeah! cause I hate that part, but found somebody around here that actually eats them so we are trading traps I fill them and he comes and brings me an empty cage and takes the coon away and so on. He says it makes his job easier of actually hunting or trapping his own, Which works for me!!
\
I hate the thought of killing them myself but really taking them away and letting them go was really out of the question, he would just come back and kill my chickens later or go to someone elses coop around here (we have alot of chicken people in my area) and kill their chickens, So this seems to be the perfect solution to my deliema,
I don't know how they could eat a raccoon.

But to each his own.
I guess when ya think about it, the raccoon is going for a good purpose so his death isn't a waste, Right ? Makes me feel a little bit better about it if I think about it that way,
Sandy

 

[moetrout]

I have unknownly ate raccoon before. It tasted like .......well you know what. Maybe your friend is also using fur and making a little something for his efforts too? My wife cringes, but I have been known to pick up road killed coon if the fur looked good.

 

[stormylady]

He could be using it for other purposes all's I know is he said they BBQ them, I know they come from Tennessee and ate them all the time ?? But here in IL. I don't think it is very common, Ive never heard of anybody eating them before, but then again the guy said they eat squirrels and groudhogs too again with the

. But if he can use the fur and any other parts more power to him. I hate to see anything go to waste. Even a chicken eatin' old coon! LOL

My sister said that her first husbands family ate all that stuff, she said it wasn't half bad til she found out what it was then she was sick for a week! LOL
By the way what do you make out of the fur??

 

[Jbrandt000]

The best way that I have found to catch raccoons and possums is to put the live trap in a plastic trash can and lay it on its side so the trap door is out. It works for me every time. place it next to the chicken pen. Throw what ever you want for bait to the back. There is only one way they can get to the bait.