City folks - killed our first raccoon

[wanda047]

Yes, sadly there are those who will try to make you feel bad, but be assured you did the right thing. I definitely would've done the very same thing you did. It was a predator and given time would've gotten into your chickens eventually. It was just waiting for the right time and opportunity.

 

[briana1975]

We are in a similar situation. We are way out of the city limits though so shooting an animal in not an issue. But, we have had a coon living in the barn. Has not gone after chickens yet. But I found bits left of a wild rabbit in the yard. Don't know if it is the coon that got it or something else. But we are gonna put the trap out and see what we might get. I keep going back and forth with myself on if we should get rid of any problems even though they haven't actually given us any problems yet. But I also think it will just be a matter of time before something does go after the chickens so I also think better safe than sorry.

 

[enola]

A raccoon is a chicken problem waiting to happen . . . .

 

[Chicken Fruit]

My rule is, its my house, my yard my territory. Every animal on earth understands territories. If they want to invade mine I will kill them if I dont like them. Any animal would understand that.

he took his risk living in your tree. nuf said.

 

[danielbrown]

Sometimes its better to do some preventive maintenance to take care of obvious future problems. Rather than sit around and wait for it to happen and make a thread crying about half your flock getting killed. Even then people would post "please don't kill that innocent animal, It's just doing what predators do" post.

 

[CityChook]

Quote:
Thanks everyone for your encouraging words. I really debated on even posting this. However, there are more and more city people keeping chickens and I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem. Maybe someone else will read this post and it will help them decide for themselves what the right course of action will be for them.

 

[insiderart]

Ugh, I would not have wanted a huge raccoon living so closely to where my children play anyway. They are mean and a possible health hazard.

 

[GaNewChick]

Yep ~ got one hanging around here too, although we are not in the city. At some point, we'll have to do something too. The problem with this one, is we never see it (or it's extended family members) except for the cam pics and has no particular time of showing up. He comes anywhere between midnight and 5 am. That's a long time to sit up everynight waiting.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
And what's the fine for discharging a firearm within city limits?

I'm not gonna argue about whether the coon should have been removed or not....but I think it's a very bad idea to encourage illegal means of doing so.

I didn't spend enough time searching to be sure that these are the *Minneapolis* statutes, but I believe these are the right ones:

609.66,S1a(2) and (b) Intentionally Discharge a Firearm, Felony 0-2 years and/or $1.500 - $5,000
609.66, S1a(a)(3) and (b) Reckless Discharge of a Firearm in a Municipality, Felony 0-2 years and/or $1,500 - $5,000

Hmmm.... $400, or $5000.....

And did you know that Minneapolis police actually have a "gunshot sound detector" installed somewhere in the city?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061226/102239.shtml

 

[cmjust0]

We had a very similar situation a while back.. We came home one night and let the dogs out, and they immediately ran over to one of the apple trees in the backyard and started barking like crazy. I got the spotlight out and found that there was a raccoon up there.

It went on to live in that tree for about...oh, I dunno...maybe five more minutes. Long enough for me to get the shotgun and two shells.

We didn't even have chickens at the time, nor do we have kids playing in the backyard. I'm not exactly an unfeeling, hardened killer, either.. It wasn't even entirely that I didn't want a raccoon in my apple tree, but more that I didn't want it coming out of the apple tree to mix it up with my dogs, or eat my sweetcorn, or crap on my goats' hay, raid the goats' grain, get into the trash, or all the other irritating things that raccoons are prone to do.

Raccoons are a nuisance, plain and simple.. I told someone at work about the incident and they jokingly said "Awww, she was probably a mama raccoon and had a whole litter of little baby raccoons that are starving now because of you..."

I thought for a minute and couldn't help but say what I actually thought about that notion....

"I hope so."