Help! Black & White Cat in Trap. Smells Bad.

[ValerieJ]

Oh, I like raccoons too (I actually love all animals, when they're behaving nicely). If I wasn't getting chickens, I wouldn't mind them either. But coons are notorious chicken killers, and much more intelligent and capable than skunks. A skunk doesn't have little hands that are capable of opening latches and probably can't plan like a coon can. They're also weaker than coons. So I'm not worried so much about skunks around the chickens (they'll be in a completely enclosed hardware cloth run that the skunk can't squeeze or dig into), but the coons I worry about cause they're smart and strong.

I was going to trap the babies and move them away from our little neighborhood, since we all have chickens here, but I read up on it first and found out the babies have to be with their moms for a long time. Can't remember exactly now, something like 6 or 8 months. Our dog has a door to go out at night and she does when she smells a raccoon.

 

[Folly's place]

Raccoons and skunks become much less 'cute' if you have chicken deaths, and worse, dying, because of them. Do work at making everything as predator proof as possible, just because.
Raccoon poo carries a very bad roundworm, that has killed people, especially children. Both species can have rabies and other not so fun diseases too. In the wild, fine. In the yard, not so much.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Electric fencing won't be an option in a city lot either, sadly, because it does work well.
Mary

 

[cmom]

It's illegal, and bad policy, to transport critters 'far away' in most states. You can look at your Utah DNR site to find out what's okay.
Here, we can release on our same property, or on private land within the same county with landowner permission. Nobody wants a trapwise likely chicken killer nearby though!
Cute as they are, and in spite of Disney movies, not good to have in your back yard.
Mary

Same here in Florida.

 

[cmom]

I'm sure it was a rabid coon that tried to get into my sister's house through her doggy door. It was foaming at the mouth. First it was attempting to go after her dogs outside and when they came inside through their door the coon tried to follow them but her husband was able to close and lock the door before the coon got to it.

 

[Peepsi]

Raccoons and skunks become much less 'cute' if you have chicken deaths, and worse, dying, because of them. Do work at making everything as predator proof as possible, just because.
Raccoon poo carries a very bad roundworm, that has killed people, especially children. Both species can have rabies and other not so fun diseases too. In the wild, fine. In the yard, not so much.
Mary

Oh, I fully agree with you. The critters need to stay out of my yard. I'm in the middle of building the coop and run right now. The run will have hardware cloth on all sides, top and bottom. Plus, rocks under it, and it's up on concrete blocks. I'll be posting a step-by-step for how I built everything once it's done. The design should be 99% predator-proof (yeah, i know, bears. They're the 1%. Nothing can stop a bear who is determined to eat your chickens)

 

[Peepsi]

I'm sure it was a rabid coon that tried to get into my sister's house through her doggy door. It was foaming at the mouth. First it was attempting to go after her dogs outside and when they came inside through their door the coon tried to follow them but her husband was able to close and lock the door before the coon got to it.

Yikes, now THAT is scary. Glad I don't have any pet doors! Never trusted pet doors..what is to stop a burglar from getting in that way (especially if your dog is like most dogs...a real lover)? Or, as you stated, any critter bold enough can come right in, including rabid animals.

 

[cmom]

Not long ago on our local news, some people had some security cameras in their home and one of the cameras was pointed at their doggy door. A thief did try to enter their house through the doggy door and they captured it on their security camera and the man was arrested.