We caught the varmint .. now what ..

[Tortoise]

Honestly I have a soft spot because I have rehabilitated several opossums through wildlife rehabilitation. Even if I knew one individual was going after my coop, I would probably remove it with a live trap and take it to the middle of a wildlife preserve and let it go. I have rehabilitated many wild animals and that's what I always do. I don't really care if it's legal to do so or not. Nobody's business if I want to dump an opossum out in the middle of the woods where it actually belongs. Nobody is ever going to prosecute you on something so petty.

The reason they're going after our livestock is because we're diminishing their natural habitats, so I feel personally responsible for the welfare of wildlife no matter how inconvenient it might be to me. It's not their fault they're hungry and desperate - it's partially ours (as a species).

Totally agree!

 

[Tortoise]

It just figures doesn't it? The one thing you tried to save a buck on is the one place the critters got in. Damn. This is not fair at all. What's DD? Daughter? Your husband will have to kill the critters, you know that, all of them. To take them somewhere else and drop them off is illegal here in California: it's just putting your problem on someone else's doorstep. You don't want to do that. They are just animals after all, that have caused you pain and heartbreak and money. Again, so sorry for your loss.

Really, "just animals after all"! Pretty cold and heartless statement!

 

[Fishkeeper]

So, you were going to kill it, but it has babies. But if the babies grew up and came back next year and got at your birds, you'd kill them then.

Don't drown them. If you decide to kill them, find a humane method.

You're making the coop predator-proof now, right? If you are, you could always just let them go. You're going to have opossums in your area, after all, and if they can't get in then they can't hurt anything.

 

[danceswithronin]

Drowning any animal to death is in my opinion incredibly cruel, regardless of what species it is. If it's not a death you would wish on yourself, you should never perpetrate it on an innocent. And all animals are innocent by nature. Animals are emotionally complex creatures with their own lives, capable of the same range of emotions as us, including panic and fear and confusion. To me it's morally the same as drowning a human infant. Just my two cents.

 

[CaramelKittey]

I’m so sorry for your loss! That is truly heartbreaking! I almost cried just reading it!


Honestly, we have never had an opossum kill our chicks but, we have had snakes. We kill the snakes if we need to. Honestly, I’d be so angry that I couldn’t sleep until it was dead. That’s just my opinion though.

Hope it works out! So sorry for your loss. ;(

 

[Mrprez]

Check your local laws before you relocate them. I moved three of them in one night across two big rivers. Next day I was telling my neighbor about it and he said the fine is $600! I didn’t relocate anymore.

 

[Tortoise]

Just an FYI. You can only be fined if caught by the right people who's job it is to catch people doing these things. Those dnr/forestry positions are short handed across this country. The chances of being caught and actually getting a fine is doubtful at best!
This next statement is in general and pointed at no one. Make varmint proof animal/pet safe enclosures for all your animals. That's our duty as their caretakers.

 

[Mrprez]

True, plus it was way after dark. Made three trips across a bridge and through a tunnel that night. I was wore out.

 

[jadip4]

If we had killed the possum, it'd be by way of .22. Done. Not sure why the conclusion of drowning was jumped to. I wouldn't wish that on any critter.

However, hubs saw the litter and apparently IS as soft as I am. I got home and he had her loaded on the 4 wheeler. Needless to say, we moved them. We live on the edge of swamp, farms, and hunting lands. He rode a few miles to a pond back in the woods and left her there to figure it out.

All the birds will be safely tucked into the coop irregardless from this point forward. Trap and camera will stay out there for a while.

 

[Callender Girl]

Will the DNR there relocate it for you, once you've trapped it? I used the DNR to come relocate a juvenile great horned owl that wanted duck for dinner -- but knocked herself silly on a power line wire first. I just trailed her until he got here.

In the past couple of years, I have relocated two possums; they both smiled at me and neither had yet killed anything. I had to kill-trap a rat who moved into a hollow tree next door to a coop, and although I LOVE animals, if I had caught the mink that slaughtered (and, of course, didn't even eat) my hens, I would have beaten it to death. It is the only time in my life that I have wanted, really wanted, to kill an animal. However, I did put up a live trap instead -- and all I got was a peevish possum.

Raising poultry and livestock sometimes forces you to make choices that you really don't want to have to make.

And, I am sorry for the loss of your sweet mama.