Face-to-face with daytime raccoon, now what?

[Folly's place]

Here we haven't lost birds to raccoons during the day, and with our safe coop, the beasts can't get them at night. We have trapped and shot bold individuals at times, and one that was ill in the barn, who we had tested for rabies, etc. Fortunately that poor guy had another fatal problem, so wasn't contagious.
I would have zero tolerance for any in my yard, especially during the day. They can carry too many diseases! And they tend to poo in specific locations, which is good if it's not available to you or your pets. Their roundworms can be fatal to humans!
Once you have chickens, they cease to be 'cute'!
Mary

 

[David61]

any wild animal that doesn't run for its life when told to get is suspected of having rabies and is tested at once. How do we test for rabies ? You cut the head off and it sent off to a lab for testing.

 

[Folly's place]

Actually, don't do the 'head cutting' yourself!!! It's for AC, your DNR, or a veterinarian to manage this safely.
And I'm in the same camp about critters who don't get out of my path immediately.
Having people feed wild critters like raccoons is folly.
Mary

 

[Geena]

Actually, don't do the 'head cutting' yourself!!! It's for AC, your DNR, or a veterinarian to manage this safely.
And I'm in the same camp about critters who don't get out of my path immediately.
Having people feed wild critters like raccoons is folly.
Mary

Right! definitely not!! Rabies congregates in the spinal cord and brain. Chopping the head off yourself would put one at great risk of contracting rabies. Don't even touch the critter, rabies can be transmitted through blood and saliva as well.

 

[98cwitr]

Me? I'd shoot it.

 

[Vadard]

Click. Click. Boom.

If that’s not feasible, you can catch them easily in humane traps with cat food as bait. This is what I did when I used to be more civilized, or was at least stuck in civilization. I released them in a wooded area 10 miles from my house.

Hopefully that’s legal where you live.

 

[David61]

LOL well i'm not going to cut its head off. It was just a nice way to say its going to be killed for being suspected. I have been finding raccoons dead or dying the last few months here on the coast. Distemper has been reported to be very bad this year and i can give witness. My dog has attacked two sick raccoons while walking in the woods the last month.

 

[Chickhawk]

Click. Click. Boom.

If that’s not feasible, you can catch them easily in humane traps with cat food as bait. This is what I did when I used to be more civilized, or was at least stuck in civilization. I released them in a wooded area 10 miles from my house.

Hopefully that’s legal where you live.

Don't do that. I am the sucker living in a wooded area where everyone else around come to dump their raccoons. This is insane how dense the population becomes and the troubles that come with that. Doing this is simply transferring your problem to another hen caretaker/lover like me. And those raccoons that already fell for a live trap are unlikely to fall again making them much harder to catch. Dispatch it yourself. A container full of water large enough to hold the cage is surprisingly quiet...

 

[Folly's place]

In many states in the USA, it's illegal to relocate raccoons, foxes, and other critters, except on your own property, or on private land within the same county, with landowner permission.
Find out what's legal where you live before relocating! It's about spreading diseases, and population density, and inflicting a trap wise critter on someone else.
Mary

 

[Vadard]

Don't do that. I am the sucker living in a wooded area where everyone else around come to dump their raccoons. This is insane how dense the population becomes and the troubles that come with that. Doing this is simply transferring your problem to another hen caretaker/lover like me.

Oof. Good point. I hadn't thought of that circumstance for other people. In my case, I relocated them to a managed flood plain area where no one lived. This is what the game warden told me to do when I called about trapping them.