Nuisance Animals

Uh Oh! Looks like a new batch of raccoons is moving in to my yard. I had an encounter with one last night on the deck and, as he approached, he seemed fully aware of my presence and continued to come toward me anyway.

This happens when people feed the "cute" raccoons and acclimate them to human interaction. It's much the same problem we face with our bear population. "Nuisance" animals are created by humans and then destroyed by humans when they go from "cute and cuddly" to scary and menacing.

I have a problem with this whole topic.

Several years ago I had ten raccoons living under an aggregate slab on the back of my house. It turns out the neighbor two doors up was feeding them every night and, with full bellies, they'd retire to my house. I had to get a trapping license from the state, traps from Bruce Hemming at Buckshot's Camp, and build a bucket trap to catch and dispatch them.

So it is time to build a new version of the old bucket trap and remove this animal before it becomes a problem.

B