Raccoon attack last night. Need advice.

[tammyd57]

I'm pretty sure in MOST places that it's illegal to relocate wild animals. However it is not illegal to kill them. I won't go to jail for being "humane" to a raccoon that wants to destroy my flock.

 

[Dust Bunny]

it really is possible to predator proof a coup (with the exception of bears) i mean most of OUR homes are predator proof aren't they? i have yet to wake up to find a raccoon in my kitchen, i built my coup with this in mind, its built more like a cabin than a coup, just sayin...

 

[Prodigal son]

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Bingo! Anything that threatens my family, livlihood, or food supply has just torn up its "Right to Live Card".

 

[dianneS]

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I had a mamma skunk and her babies break into my henhouse and kill four young pullets and terrified the rest of the flock.

The morning after the masacre, I was cleaning up the mess and trying to get rid of the skunk smell in hopes that the chickens would return to the coop some day, and mamma skunk comes plodding across the yard. She goes in my barn and has a look around, then she goes in my chicken coop and looks around. I followed her the whole time. Then she trots outside and goes around the back of the henhouse and there lays one (or perhaps the only one) of her babies, dead. Pecked to death by my chickens! That skunk never did return. She learned not to mess with my birds!

An eye for an eye...

 

[kidcallous]

Quote:
I had a mamma skunk and her babies break into my henhouse and kill four young pullets and terrified the rest of the flock.

The morning after the masacre, I was cleaning up the mess and trying to get rid of the skunk smell in hopes that the chickens would return to the coop some day, and mamma skunk comes plodding across the yard. She goes in my barn and has a look around, then she goes in my chicken coop and looks around. I followed her the whole time. Then she trots outside and goes around the back of the henhouse and there lays one (or perhaps the only one) of her babies, dead. Pecked to death by my chickens! That skunk never did return. She learned not to mess with my birds!

An eye for an eye...

Wow. poetic justice! Creation has an amazing order of justice...

 

[happyhensny]

Take that you smelly jerk!

 

[happyhensny]

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2 miles from my house, friends found a coon in their kitchen - tore through the screen in the window over the sink.

 

[chicknerd]

WRT Rabies, the virus is alive for at least 24 hours in the saliva that was on the chicken. I was told by my vet that when ever handling an animal that was in contact with a possibly rabid animal that I should wear plastic gloves, eyewear, etc. to clean the animal. My Pyr Ama had a fight with an obviously rabid coon once (animal control would not come and get it and even admitted they had heard about this particular coon). The coon went for her throat and Ama shook her off after several minutes (the coon was literally hanging). Ama was covered in coon saliva. I had to keep her in quarantine for 24 hours per the vet. I also had to examine her for bite marks. Fortunately she was a Pyr and her mane protected her - all the coon got was fur.

Anyway, just because chickens cannot get rabies (because they are not mammals) does not mean the saliva from a rabid animal is safe. Please be cautious.

deb

 

[Sunny Side Up]

You can do a lot to NOT encourage raccoons, opossums & skunks in your neighborhood by NOT keeping dishes of dog/cat food filled & outside, especially overnight. Also keep your garbage cans securely covered & not filled with fragrant garbage for too long. And encourage your neighbors to do the same. The populations of these animals has actually increased along with development, and sometimes their nocturnal habits change. I saw a report on TV about how a community was successful in eliminating a large proportion of skunk activity by just making those 2 changes.

I learned a handy way to bait those Hav-a-Hart traps, by setting it up on parallel 2X4s and placing the dish of bait UNDER the trap. Set something heavy like a cinder block on top to keep it from tipping over. Here I have to set the dish of bait, usually an open can of smelly cat food or sardines, inside a larger dish of water to keep the fire ants from swarming into the bait and discouraging the critter. Also, lay some feed sacks or something over the trap to disguise it.

DO NOT RELOCATE YOUR TRAPPED CRITTER!!! You can contact your local Animal Care & Control for suggestions & advice as to what to do.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Intheswamp]

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Well, I just got through reading the thread and your posting is the next to the last one (as of my reading) and I'm glad to see someone state the persistence of the rabies virus. Many times people go through rabies treatment due to simply coming in to close proximity to a *possibly* rabid animal. Even when an animal is quarantined and being watched a person who had a close encounter will go ahead and begin threatment. The reason is that there is no cure for rabies and the treatment is preventive...not curative. If the person waits to see if the quarantined animal starts showing rabies symptoms then it's probably too late for the human, too.

Having said that, an older friend of my who use to fur trap once had a boar coon "get loose". He (my friend) looked like someone had whipped him with a piece of barbed wire. I asked him about getting rabies shots and he laughed at me...he ended up being fine, the old coot.

Just saying...

Ed