Re: and then there were none

C J Campbell wrote:

Raccoons are very destructive to chickens.

Ducks, too. One winter me and a friend went out to a local pond and found a bunch of ducks with no way to get water. It was bitterly cold and apparently these weren't able to do much more than sort of flap around a little, not serious fliers. Some were already dead. So we caught the rest of them and took them to my house and put them in the dog kennel outside which went mainly unused because the dogs lived in the house with us. We scattered a couple bales of hay around the pen, and put more inside the dog house. We bought duck chow and made sure they had access to water, which they promptly crapped in.

After they'd been there a couple of days one of them started laying eggs. My dad would go out to the dog kennel, open the roof of the insulated doghouse (the lid was on hinges to faciliate cleaning) and help himself to a fresh duck egg for his breakfast.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one looking to those ducks for food. A raccoon started coming around and every morning there was one less duck in the pen. We were down to 4 or 5 when the cold snap finally ended and we were able to return the remaining few to the pond where we'd found them.

They will sometimes come out during the day even if they don't have rabies, but it is always wise to capture the animal and have it checked if possible. Raccoons can also spread distemper.

Yup. We had a pet raccoon when I was a kid and when we took him to the vet to get his shots the vet read us the riot act about keeping a wild animal as a pet. Said we were putting our cats and dogs at risk. Said he'd have to vaccinate him with both cat and dog vaccines with no guarantee that he would actually develop any immunity. He also warned us that our engaging little teddy bear was a male raccoon, and when he matured he'd be fully capable of killing a hunting dog.

So we gradually started allowing him access to the woods behind our house, and allowed him to come and go as he pleased. He spent more and more time outside, learning to forage and showing less and less interest in meals at home, although he never refused canned peaches. He moved out entirely, eventually. He would stop by sometimes at dusk to check to see if there might be peaches, and that finally tapered off, too.

Raccoons are not much afraid of anything and they will break into your house looking for food. Raccoons can be trapped in Havahart raccoon traps. These will not hurt the raccoon, so you are left with the problem of what to do with the animal. It is rude to turn it loose on someone else's property. However, if you want to test the raccoon for rabies, the Havahart is the best way to go. You can get them at farm supply stores or order them from Amazon.com. Used ones are best, and they work as kitty carriers, too.

Our local animal control will loan you Hav-A-Hart traps, and will pick up the trapped critter as well.

If you really want to shoot a raccoon I recommend a shotgun or a large caliber revolver loaded with shot rounds. You do not want some bullet ricocheting off a rock and coming back and hitting you, your dogs, or someone else. Shotgun BBs are much less likely to do that. The most effective anti-raccoon round is the hand loaded "junkyard dog" (as in mean as) round. This is a 45 cal. handgun shot round loaded with both BBs and bits of cut up wire, a modern day version of the blunderbuss. You can guarantee that this round will not ricochet off rocks; in fact, it will not even penetrate sheetrock or very thick clothing. But it will sure do a number on raccoons, burglars, or whatever other varmints you find at close range. Like other such shot rounds, it can only be fired from a revolver.

Most places require you to have a hunting license to shoot varmints, but there usually is no limit on them.

Some terriers, such as Scotties, can kill raccoons (they were originally bred to hunt badgers), but you will have some high vet bills keeping the dogs stitched up. Usually such a dog will make such a racket that you have plenty of time to intervene with a baseball bat before a serious fight starts. I would not hesitate to club a raccoon.

I would. I know firsthand how strong and fast and agile they are and frankly I don't think I'd care to be that close to a wild raccoon.

When the puberty fairy first came to visit Beezer he began to bully the cats, and human visitors as well. He would invariably single out the most fearful person for special attention. He had my cousin trapped on top of a kitchen chair once. If he'd meant to harm her he certainly could have gotten her, chair or no chair. He could climb up your leg and be perched on your shoulder in the blink of an eye.

And he was incredibly strong and could literally turn around in his skin, so that no matter how you grabbed him he could still reach around and chew on your hands if he felt like it. He did, too. Never quite broke the skin but the handwriting was on the wall.


They will hurt your dog badly, given half a chance, and kill your other pets, too. They have few natural enemies and they prosper in close proximity to humans.

Dogs are pack animals. They reason that they can take on anything and if they hold on long enough reinforcements will arrive to finish the game off. So many hunting breeds are perfectly comfortable taking on animals they have no hope of defeating by themselves. That is a good thing, if you are a hunter. It is very bad if it is your Yorkie or even a bird dog encountering a raccoon out in the yard and you are not around to respond immediately. A standard poodle might be big enough to attack a raccoon, but toy poodles would be toast.

Which is why it's a bad idea to leave your dogs outside unsupervised. Where I live now, raccoons are less of a threat than malicious teenagers but the principal is the same.


Just an aside about Scotties and raccoons: Scotties will act independently and even chase a badger down into its den and kill it, but they are a specialized breed protected by long thick fur and armed with enormous teeth and powerful jaws and chest muscles. They are also highly intelligent and independent and they are not easily intimidated. After all, the farmers who bred them cannot see what is going on inside the badger's den and give instructions to the dog, so obedience and ability to learn a lot of commands was secondary to basic survival skills. (This is why Scotties are notorious for being stubborn and territorial and why they usually graduate from obedience school at the bottom of the class. It is not that they are stupid; they just don't see why a mere human should presume to tell a Scottie what to do.) But you can guarantee that even a Scottie will sustain some serious bites on the nose if he tangles with a raccoon. Not that this will deter the dog, of course; it only serves to anger him and make him more determined than ever to kill that varmint, which is why people who own breeds like Scotties have to be a little more vigilant than other dog owners. You have to be ready to step in if you don't want your dog all torn up. You never know what mischief a Scottie will find in a park or even your own yard and if a Scottie picks a serious fight, it does not intend to simply win. It intends to kill the other animal. If it was protecting a henhouse, it would protect that henhouse from bears if it had to. Humans are another matter. Most Scotties, if a human was stealing your chickens, would happily oblige by helping him pick out the best ones, all the while offering favorite recipes and suggesting a visit to the herb garden as well. So they have their limits as guard dogs. But otherwise your chickens would be safe.

My JRT reminds me of one of these little short body builder dudes with a huge chip on his shoulder.

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