Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Northern Raccoon

Deterring “nuisance wildlife” vs trapping and killing.

This poor, young raccoon was brought to us after it was spotted in a backyard in Stephenson, VA, with a raccoon-specific leg-trap on its paw. This raccoon did everything it could to get free, as evidenced by the severe damage done to the raccoon’s paw, but the trap had been tightly snapped onto the foot.

Though many types of traps are legal, there are requirements to check these traps every 24 hours at a minimum. Due to the appearance of these injuries, we suspect this raccoon had been suffering with these injuries for multiple days before getting help. Unfortunately, due to the extent of the injuries, the only option we could offer was euthanasia.

It’s important to note that while many people set traps to get rid of “nuisance animals”, this is not a sustainable or effective long-term solution.

Trapping and killing a few raccoons each year only opens up the area to neighboring raccoons looking for new territories and resources while potentially orphaning babies in the process.

A better solution would be exclusion and prevention.

Identifying how animals are accessing your yard or unwanted area can help you prevent these animals from accessing these places to begin with. Is there a hole in a fence or attic that can be patched? Does the chicken coop need to be reinforced with wire? Can wire be placed into the ground to prevent digging or access underneath structures?

Ask yourself what is attracting the animals to these areas. Maybe bird feeders should be taken down, or pets fed inside, small livestock housed in a secure enclosure, or the yard kept neat and trim to reduce shelter and food resources.

Lastly, you can help encourage animals to avoid or move away from areas altogether by using household ammonia soaked on rags placed around the entrances of dens, radios, motion-activated flood-lights, or livestock guardians.

As we continue to destroy and take habitat away from wildlife, we can all do our part by being empathetic and learning to coexist with our wild neighbors by using humane techniques to keep them safe and out of unwanted spaces.

As this case shows, traps can be uprooted and animals can escape while still ensnared, which only extends their suffering. It is also illegal to relocate wildlife, so when wildlife is caught in a trap the only legal course of action is to euthanize.

If you have an issue with a wild animal in or around your home, give us a call and we can help you with your specific situation so that we can hopefully avoid tragic ends like this one.

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