Sad day.

[adrikeen]

Suburban area here surrounded by forest preserves - we see raccoons during the day.
They are opportunists, they will remember where someone has food outside for a dog or cat. They will also eat bird seed - we don't feed them anymore. And don't feed squirrels, don't need them either.

Wow...that reminded me....I used to have a juvenile racoon get into my bird feeders as well....and that was during the day. I'd catch him/her hanging off the feeders. It was amusing, but not.

 

[Emirasan]

So this looks like a pre fab coop? You think it was a younger raccoon? A younger raccoon was able to tear the wire off the coop? I looked at mine a couple days ago and thought the staples sure didn't seem to be enough even though I pushed on it and it was sturdy.

Just when I think I'm done I have to add more. A second layer of hardware cloth will now be added to the prefab coop I have along with all around it on the ground.

Sorry for your loss--it's just horrible.

It is a prefab coop. I didn't have the confidence to build one from scratch. It's over all pretty sturdy, but we have learned the staples for the wire aren't that good against a really determined animal. Our town is semi-rural so wildlife is very common, but usually doesn't bother much if anything.