What do I do with this opossom?

[shortgrass]

Alot we do is under the cover of darkness. Permits etc? Fish and game cannot always come to our aid.
If you are not going to terminate this possum, find a good place and release it....period! Do not have to say anything to anybody!

What YOU do "under the cover of darkness", is break the law, and possibly set up a great way to spread disease and a lot if problems.

Maybe it's time to add a little thread and educate a little.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1008185/lets-talk-relocation


Please don't encourage others to break the law. They are there to protect us AND our livestock.

 

[scflock]

This is my first time in this section, and a friend of mine linked me this thread because they know I hold a special place in my heart for 'possums.
It hasn't caused a problem? Except eating chicks and eggs? And now it was getting close to your adult hens? You don't think a possum would eat an adult? The only chicken I was attached to enough to cry over was killed by a possum. It maimed a few others, then kept coming back until I, too, trapped it. You know what's the best part of a have-a-heart trap? You don't have to use the scope.
Possums are evil little chicken nabbing creatures, and I have chased one down at midnight, in my pajamas, in the rain, with a flashlight in one hand and a .22 in the other. That was still easier than dragging one out from under a coop with a fishing rod and a treble hook. Then the .22
In case you're wondering, I am also against relocation

 

[Alex1010]

Don't mean to be a jerk. But I would humanely kill him. What do you like better? A opossum or chickens?

 

[The Lazy L]

For starters, we've had this opossum living underneath our house ...I never built an actual enclosed chicken coop..I lost several eggs, chicks, doves, and even a silkie hen...What am I suppose to do now?...What should I do?

You can either continue to raise chicks, doves and hens for opossum food or:

1. Get a 3 foot live animal trap.

2. Trap the opossum.

3. Put the live animal trap along with the trapped opossum in a 4 foot barrel full of water.

 

[Alex1010]

I would choose #3

 

[scflock]

I would choose #3

I think that is the third installment of the trilogy

 

[tougholdbird]

I apologize if I have been misinterpreted.

I live in the country in highly wooded and treed area. My closest neighbor is about 1/4 mile away with all others much further.

Fish and Game seems to agree with me if I were to choose to re-home the animal.
And if put down, to dispose of properly to reduce disease.

 

[BackyardDove]

Well, according to Texas law.....
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...SZEDQU&usg=AFQjCNF-EaPZo9gIzUH4AcjA6a4InZQ7XQ


You have to have written permission from the owner if the land you want to relocate to or a permit from the state of Texas.


Really, dispatching it is the best option. Even if you do manage to get permission or a permit, the possum will probably die a horrible death in the midst of another predators territory...

Well, yes, but according to Texas law you also must give a written or oral notification of a crime to your victim at least 24 hours before doing the crime. Among many other things, it's also illegal to spit on the side walk here in Texas. There are lots of rules and regulations here, and as a result, most people and police ignore them. It's simply too much of a hassle to fine somebody for small things like releasing wildlife onto another person's property, mostly because of how hard it is to prove. Not to mention most of Texas is rural and literally nobody out in the country cares if you release wildlife, so long as it's not next to their house. The only "real" (as in, police will actually persecute) laws we have concerning ridding yourself of pests is that you can't kill it if it's not on your land. Otherwise, do as you please. Besides all that, I am attempting to contact a local wildlife facility that I took an orphaned deer to a couple years ago, and if they were unable to take him, I have family who owns land and won't mind having just another possum around.

And yes, perhaps my efforts are in vain and he will die anyways. I do not care. I would rather give him a chance to live than put a bullet through his skull simply because he was hungry and looking for a meal.

You can either continue to raise chicks, doves and hens for opossum food or:

1. Get a 3 foot live animal trap.

2. Trap the opossum.

3. Put the live animal trap along with the trapped opossum in a 4 foot barrel full of water.

Wow, that is the most sadistic way of killing an animal that I've heard of in a while. Congrats?

 

[shortgrass]

Well, in all honesty, you asked, on a chicken forum, what to do with an opossum.

I think it's a pretty good estimate if what most poultry owners WOULD do with an opossum. So I guess no more advice needed from me.

I am glad you do not live in CO, however, lol. I would be waiting at my property line for you to illegally dump him, shoot him, and turn you in.

I was trying to assist in helping keep you in line with what the laws are there, and to plead with you to not put the animal on someone else's property. It's YOUR burden, YOU take proper protocols to avoid being a bad neighbor. It was an attempt to help explain why so many if us are "sadistic barbarian possum killers."

Experience is why.

Give the thing to Wildlife control and wash your hands of it is my final "unhelpful" tip.

 

[BackyardDove]

Well, in all honesty, you asked, on a chicken forum, what to do with an opossum.

I think it's a pretty good estimate if what most poultry owners WOULD do with an opossum. So I guess no more advice needed from me.

I am glad you do not live in CO, however, lol. I would be waiting at my property line for you to illegally dump him, shoot him, and turn you in.

I was trying to assist in helping keep you in line with what the laws are there, and to plead with you to not put the animal on someone else's property. It's YOUR burden, YOU take proper protocols to avoid being a bad neighbor. It was an attempt to help explain why so many if us are "sadistic barbarian possum killers."

Experience is why.

I asked what to humanely do with a trapped possum. I did not specify that I didn't want to kill him, so I said so later on. Several times. See my frustrations? If I wanted to kill him i would've done so long ago, I do live in Texas ya know and I know plenty of people who'd do the job for me. As for waiting at your property line and waiting for me to illegally dump him and so on, it seems as though you missed where I said that I am trying to contact a wildlife facility who may take him, and, if they can't and I have no other options, that I have family who don't mind an extra possum running around. What's illegal about giving him a wildlife facility or putting him on the property of a consenting family member? I appreciate you trying to assist me in knowing the laws and I respect that you don't want me to burden another with this problem possum, but I ask that you don't try to convince me to kill him. If you have differing views and feel that killing him is the best option, that's fine, I respect your opinions, but please respect mine as well by looking at options that are best to suit my interests, even if it's not what you think is the best option.

Also, I honestly really wasn't referring to you as being somebody who was trying to convince me to kill the possum/was being unhelpful. Yes you mentioned it, but you did it in a respectful way. People telling me of the various killing methods, their stories of killing, or how killing him is the only way is horrifying to me.