Duke foot trap?

[centrarchid]

I deal with raccoons using a range of methods that include traps, usually of the have a heart type. Dogs are my favorite method. Dogs occasionally catch and kill a coon in field or when I knock one down out of tree but nine times out of ten coons are simply chased off long before they get into area where they can cause trouble. They may get a few chomps on back side but my losses to raccoons are now zero and I do not have to invest time in running traps every mourning. Traps I do have are next to perimeter pens where I go by twice daily to care for birds so no added time to trap management.

 

[sargent spurs]

so if a opossum goes in my trap will it chop is leg off?

 

[blucoondawg]

Most likely no however I do see plenty of 3 footed coons who have undoubtedly had encounters with traps but the trap doesn't chop off the leg, it may break the leg sometimes then the animal will chew off the fleshy part which remains connected in doing so chewing its own foot off. If you check your traps often it shouldn't really be an issue

 

[MiniMeadows]

We are in the middle of the raccoon insurgency of 2013. I have Live traps out and have been pretty successful. We installed a Dukes trap near our pen and last night caught our first one in it. Dogs went crazy around 2 AM and sure enough a large raccoon was caught in it. Due to an evening sampling adult beverages I did not shoot on site, instead going out at first light and found the hand in the trap, but nothing else. This was a pretty large raccoon.

The trap was wrapped around the wire fence and there appeared to be quite a bit of scuffle marks outside the trap chain's radius. My question is this. Could something have come around and gotten into a fight with the trapped raccoon? My dogs did not go back out after the 2AM event.

Thoughts?

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

The only truly humane methods are proper fencing, guard animals, and locking chickens up at night. Foot hold traps result in mauling, relocation results in panic if not terror, and shooting results in death. The animal hates all 3 of those outcomes.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: It's ILLEGAL to possess and transport wild animals in most states, and it's dangerous to handle them.
If you're NOT going to kill it, don't bother to trap it

That "state land far away" is someone ELSE'S back yard, and we don't want YOUR problem animals

 

[sdm111]

I live basically in the marshy swamp so I deal with possums coons foxes and dogs and found dogs to be the worst at least the wild animals will eat the chickens dogs just leave them. ( for the record I have never killed a dog)

 

[GarthRyan]

I say, protect your flock against predators at all costs. We've all spent money buying and raising our chickens and then a raccoon can just stop by and have a free meal, you can either make your own Alcatraz or you can keep a look out at night. I've lost two chicks to a raccoon and so I've killed two raccoons and so far haven't had any more encounters. One, i shot out of a window one night while he was looking around the chicken run and the other i caught in a spring trap then shot. And by the way, chicken wire is no match for a raccoon since i had one rip through it and grab his dinner and chain link fence won't let them tear into it but the 2x2 inch hole is plenty big enough for them to reach through and pick his victim. Anyways, good luck to everyone in preventing, deterring, trapping, and dealing with predators.

 

[brandon170]

For the best results with the duke dog proof traps you should set them in a open area so the coon can't reach anything. Coon can on occasion get out of these traps if they can get leverage of pulling or pushing against something. So front best results they should be set in an open area and staked down with a 24" stake IMO

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The trap was wrapped around the wire fence and there appeared to be quite a bit of scuffle marks outside the trap chain's radius. My question is this. Could something have come around and gotten into a fight with the trapped raccoon? My dogs did not go back out after the 2AM event.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that the coon tangled the trap up in the fence and that gave him enough leverage to escape, well at least 95% of him. The only time that a tangling type set should be used is with sets for aquatic fur bearers like mink, muskrat, beaver, etc. The idea behind this is to insure that the target animal can't make it to dry land and that the weight of the trap carries him under the surface of the stream or lake, insuring a quick death from drowning while protecting your catch from scavengers.