What to do with trapped raccoons?

gspn said:

Yes, putting a few raccoons in a 150,000 acre national forest, or on my own farm is "dumping the problem on someone else".

Your unthinking response is the type of thing that makes this site worse. Please think, ask questions, and analyze rather than going for a gold medal in jumping to conclusions.

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I happen to LIVE 50 yards from "the national forest". Kill your own coons. Don't dump 'em on "me" or who ever else you are dumping them on. Do your own killing. You wouldn't have the problem if you weren't trying to feed the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock. You made the problem, you deal with the problem you created.

It SHOULD be illegal.

I'm also in the no dumping them...alive...camp. I've got a dozen chickens and 160 acres of waterfowl and pheasant habitat adjacent on which I do predator control, and I have enough homegrown opossums, raccoons, skunks, and feral cats to deal with without folks dumping more of them off "out in the country". When you move a wild animal off his home range, especially when he's been accustomed to an easy meal of corn rather than foraging, he's starting off at a disadvantage to established animals in the area and going to be looking for an easy meal and probably pretty desperate and brazen going about it. This isn't so much aimed at the OP who indicated he's dispatching said critters, but to any other casual readers who might think letting them go somewhere else is a good idea. If your animals are a nuisance, you need to have the stomach to kill and properly dispose of them, or leave them alone. Those are the 2 options.

I was trapping and shooting them for a while. Cannot possibly shoot 'em fast enough to make a dent in the population, so I gave up. The vultures loved me around here, though.

I hate the things. They put me out of the chicken business.

der Teufel said:

It's also illegal in Texas. Trapped raccoons must be killed or released on the trapper's own property. You can't make them "someone else's problem".

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^^^^^^
Sort of. But more detail is needed (as concerns relocation of Raccoons in Texas). There is no requirement to kill the trapped animal, it could be also be released. IF released other than on the Land Owners property 'authorization' by the TPWD must first be obtained AND permission given by the Land Owner on whose property the animal is going to be released. So....I am saying there IS a lawful method/means to do this.

However, you are correct to say that simply taking a live raccoon and dumping it elsewhere WITHOUT the above provisions is indeed a violation.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_w7000_0065.pdf

"NUISANCE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS Landowners or their agents may take nuisance fur-bearing animals in any number by any means at any time on that person’s land without the need for a hunting or trapping license. However, fur-bearing animals or their pelts taken for these purposes may not be retained or possessed by anyone at any time except licensed trappers during the lawful open season and possession periods. Nuisance fur-bearing animals may be captured and relocated if the person has received authorization from TPWD and the owner of the property where the release will occur. A monthly report is required detailing the number and kind of fur-bearers captured, location of release site, and name and address of person authorized to release. Report due to TPWD no later than the tenth of each month."

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^^^^^
It should also be noted that a nuisance fur bearing animal (Raccoon) may not be possessed (carcass or pelt) outside of lawful open trapping seasons and only then by licensed trappers. So in 'Texas'....for most of the year...your decision of what to do with the dispatched animal has already been made for you: Dispose of it.

Jack Ryan said:

I happen to LIVE 50 yards from "the national forest". Kill your own coons. Don't dump 'em on "me" or who ever else you are dumping them on. Do your own killing. You wouldn't have the problem if you weren't trying to feed the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock. You made the problem, you deal with the problem you created.
It SHOULD be illegal.

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I'm with you with respect to dumping animals in another location, but curious about the second half of your response "trying to feed the whole outdoors"? Are you at odds with supplemental feeding/baiting? If so....it might make for good discussion in another thread. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Here's a story about a trapped and released wild animal. It's a black bear, not a raccoon, but I think the analogy applies, just on a much smaller scale. 3 years ago the MI DNR live trapped a nuisance bear near a popular resort area on Big Bay DeNoc. They released it in a very wild area near Lake Superior North of Ironwood, miles from the nearest settlement. Within 2 weeks time, the animal traveled 12 miles and set up shop near my friends farm, tore into a very secure chicken coop killing his whole flock, killed the neighbors laying ducks and a milking goat that they depended on for additional income, caused significant property damage, was unable to be re-trapped by the DNR, and was eventually shot, in the dark with a rifle by my friend as he took his turn pulling guard duty for the neighbors kids waiting for the school bus as the bear approached from downwind in a very predatory manner. My friend, who works in a fairly high level position in the USFS had the connections and pull to get these answers, and effect a policy change on releasing trapped nuisance animals by the DNR. Had he not been so well connected, this story would never have come to light. Releasing nuisance animals is not a good idea.

"Yes, putting a few raccoons in a 150,000 acre national forest, or on my own farm is "dumping the problem on someone else". "

Dumping them anywhere outside your property is illegal. Dumping them in a National Forest is really bad whether you think so or not. I expect more from a THR member.

Coons are indeed vermin. They live and multiply very well with man where some other species do not. Think rats. They are VERY hard on all ground nesting birds and rabbits. Ducks, pheasants, quail etc. all owe a part of their demise to coon depredation. They are also carries of the various tick and mosquito borne diseases that plague us now. 100% of any I have gutted are full of worms. What a great many hunters fail to realize is that manageing your property for deer creates the perfect enviroment for the coons and other vermin. Those who manage for small game, on the other hand, try to control the vermin and incidently create the perfect enviroment for deer. Animal rights and anti fur groups and apparently some outdoorsmen apparently don't realize that man is also a part of the enviroment and therefore a part of the balance. Since we have created conditions that perfect for a glut of coons they must be dealt with for the benefit of other species. I shot 16 one night in my backyard fruit trees. The neighbor trapped just over 50 in his sweet corn patch in a week. It's why we no longer have quail. As far as disposal, I too have a small farm where I dump some. Some I just bag and put in the trash. I also have a small place up against the national forest and when the coons come out of the woods they are dumped back. Ashes to ashes sort of thing. Put trail cams on the ones dumped in the nat. forest and you will see every critter in the woods come to those things. Even deer. They last about a week in fly season. If you're concerned with the vultures getting the lead use the copper solid CCI .22. They work pretty good.

Dumping any live critter on someone else's property is a sorry thing to do.

Jack Ryan said:

You wouldn't have the problem if you weren't trying to feed the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock. You made the problem, you deal with the problem you created.

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My God, you are displaying a shocking level of ignorance. Shocking and unbefitting inclusion on "The High Road" website. Where do you get any information about me “feeding the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock”. I have fed nothing...nothing.

Where do you get the information that I “made the problem”?

Show me where you get this information, or quit posting this nonsense. Please show me the source of your assumptions.

gspn said:

My God, you are displaying a shocking level of ignorance. Shocking and unbefitting inclusion on "The High Road" website. Where do you get any information about me “feeding the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock”. I have fed nothing...nothing.

Where do you get the information that I “made the problem”?

Show me where you get this information, or quit posting this nonsense. Please show me the source of your assumptions.

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Best guess is he’s confused you with the OP. Easy to lose track of in threads like this where other contributors are far more involved than the one who started it. True to internet form, tempers flare far more rapidly than they would with a handful people talking face-to-face.

The baiting discussion may be worthwhile in a separate thread, but I doubt it would be any less heated...

gspn said:

My God, you are displaying a shocking level of ignorance. Shocking and unbefitting inclusion on "The High Road" website. Where do you get any information about me “feeding the whole outdoors like it was full of zoo animals and livestock”. I have fed nothing...nothing.

Where do you get the information that I “made the problem”?

Show me where you get this information, or quit posting this nonsense. Please show me the source of your assumptions.

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DairyVet said:

Best guess is he’s confused you with the OP. Easy to lose track of in threads like this where other contributors are far more involved than the one who started it. True to internet form, tempers flare far more rapidly than they would with a handful people talking face-to-face.

The baiting discussion may be worthwhile in a separate thread, but I doubt it would be any less heated...

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This is correct. I DID confuse "gspn" with the original poster who stated he was trapping raccoons eating his "deer corn".

My apologies to you gspn for not paying close enough attention to the names associated with the different posts I was replying to. Completely my mistake on that point.

Jack Ryan said:

This is correct. I DID confuse "gspn" with the original poster who stated he was trapping raccoons eating his "deer corn".

My apologies to you gspn for not paying close enough attention to the names associated with the different posts I was replying to. Completely my mistake on that point.

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Roger that, thanks for clearing it up.

Coons are very agile and crafty, but they aren’t going to be hired by NASA anytime soon. I live trapped seven of them out of my five row corn patch using just a handful of dry dog food. You don’t need a leg hold trap, and considering I caught two of our pet cats (and one possum) I glad I used the live trap. I managed to save about half the corn. As soon as an ear even started to get ripe they would ride the stalk to the ground and eat about half of it.

I hate raccoons.

Whack ‘em with a tubthumper and find a local fur buyer. Not hard if you’re not lazy. Some buyers take carcasses, some take green. Really, really rare a buyer wants a guy to flesh and stretch, let alone tan. If you’re going all the way to stretching, then you might as well mail them to auction up north and get your money’s worth, instead of letting the middle man make that profit from your labor.

Coons are plenty smart, but they’re not smarter than to be live trapped. When I was living at home and we were raising Walkers, we’d live trap 2 or 3 each week for training the younger dogs.

Tie a rope to the cage handle, and toss it in a lake for a while.

Varminterror said:

Whack ‘em with a tubthumper and find a local fur buyer.

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Yep, odds are someone will come and take them off your hands for the fur. The are local trapper's association clubs in most every state/area. Google for the one closest to you and tell them what you have.

buck460XVR said:

Yep, odds are someone will come and take them off your hands for the fur. The are local trapper's association clubs in most every state/area. Google for the one closest to you and tell them what you have.

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Even a lot of us fur harvesters buy our fur-buyer licenses to be able to buy hides and carcasses from locals who find themselves with a few in hand each year, but wouldn’t otherwise gather enough to make a go of it.

WhitetailKiller said:

I recently bought a dukes raccoon trap so a healthy release is not really possible without me getting scratched and bitten. I want to put the animal to use and not just kill it and toss it in a ditch but these dang things keep eating all my deer corn!! What can I do with the raccoon after I’ve dispatched it to not let it go to waste. I’m not going to use a live trap because I know these things are way to smart.

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We don't know your State of residence...so we really can't advise on 'legal' matters. It is assumed the raccoons you are taking is being done on a 'nuisance' basis and each State has laws/guidelines regarding what can be done with the animal once killed or trapped live. This would/could affect your ability to utilize the wildlife resource...which seems to be your concern.

I would recommend you consult your States Fish and Game handbook or contact your local official and inquire of them.

In my State (Texas) there are restrictions as to what can be done with a nuisance animal, your State might well have something similar.

Coons eating deer corn will not be enough in most states to constitute a nuisance animal action.

They eat my feeder corn which doesn't bother me all THAT much. But, when I started raising chickens and had 'em reaching into the chicken wire to rip the head off a chicken, I went on the warpath. I have better wire now, "hardware cloth", but haven't attempted to raise anymore for other reasons than the danged 'coons, but they really ARE a pain. They also got to climbing my feeder and tearing up the spinner plate for the corn. I went to a hanging feeder set on a tree limb pretty high and with a rope/block and tackle, seems to keep 'em away from the feeder.

We have no fur buyers and even if we did they wouldn't buy outside the fur season, essentially winter. We used to have a buyer in Hallettsville, but they're long gone. So, fleshing/tanning and shipping seems the only option. I've never preserved a fur beyond skinning and rolling up and tossing in the freezer and it just seems like a pain to do when you probably wouldn't even pay for the shipping.

Oh, yeah, to sell furs back in the early 80s at least, you had to have a $10 fur license, in Texas at least. Not sure about now days as I haven't sold a fur in near 40 years.

MCgunner said:

We have no fur buyers and even if we did they wouldn't buy outside the fur season, essentially winter. We used to have a buyer in Hallettsville, but they're long gone. So, fleshing/tanning and shipping seems the only option. I've never preserved a fur beyond skinning and rolling up and tossing in the freezer and it just seems like a pain to do when you probably wouldn't even pay for the shipping.

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Yes, there hasn't been a profitable market for 'Southern' Coon pelts in many years. It wouldn't be worth your effort to Case, Flesh and Stretch hides just to have to ship them off.

Red Fox and Bobcat would be the only pelts I would even consider fooling with these days (Texas) and most folks don't have access to enough of those to make it worth doing.

MCgunner said:

Oh, yeah, to sell furs back in the early 80s at least, you had to have a $10 fur license, in Texas at least. Not sure about now days as I haven't sold a fur in near 40 years.

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Same here. I've not sold a fur of any type since the mid to late 70's (a little into early 80's) when prices were through the roof.

My advice is to educate yourself on your states game laws before you make a decision. A couple of posters from Texas indicate that their state has laws which would make many of the options discussed illegal.

I did some research on Pennsylvania's laws too. Raccoons are a "furbearer" that has a season (October 26 to Feb. 22), and requires a furtaker licence that is seperate from a hunting licence. Their website refers to coons as a "rabies vector species" that shouldn't be relocated off of your property if live trapped. I suspect that the official game laws might have a statute where that is illegal too. I figure that farmers, who make most of their income from agriculture, could legally kill coons outside the seasons. Homeowners and such, I doubt it.

I try and grow sweet corn in my garden and have had coons take out my entire patch in a couple of nights. I kill the ones I trap and don't publicize that to my neighbors.