Raccoon for lunch

[Ed Aumiller]

In the late 70's I had 3 teenage sons...
A friend came home from the army with a descented skunk...
His wife said NO WAY...
Bought it for $25 and took it home...

It only took ONE day and it was house trained !!!
It acted just like a big ole trained cat/dog..
Definitely a lap dog... would follow kids everywhere...
Was really a great pet...
Only problem was every February it (he) wanted outside (mating season) and would get kind of unruly...
Made harness for it and kids would take to when we went to Pennsylvania and they would walk around town with it.. (we lived in mountains, still do)...
People would freak out when they saw it until they realized the could actually pet it, etc...

Had it almost 5 years until one February it got outside and would not come to any of us... disappeared into woods.... never to be seen again

Now in Virginia even descented skunks are illegal because they can carry rabies but not have rabies..

In reality it was a very good pet, very loving, but up all night running in the house making noise....

He would bend into a "U" shape to try to spray (but nothing came out) if startled... that is how they are so accurate when they spray, they are looking at the target...

If legal, would consider another one... descented of course...

At time, never thought to have it neutered... wish we had... it may never have disappeared looking for a mate... will never know...

[Rob Luter]

Dad told me my Uncle had a pet raccoon when he was a lad. I guess it was a good pet until it dismantled by Grandmother's kitchen pantry looking for snacks. It was history at that point.

I grew up in a rural setting and there were plenty of the little buggers around. They never bothered our poultry though. Mostly they'd get into trash.

We did have issues with Opossums. They were indiscriminate killers. They'd kill half the chicken house and just drag one back to the nest. We'd follow the trail of feathers back to the tree and dispatch them with extreme prejudice. As primitive as their nervous system is they're tough to kill. Usually a 12 Gauge 3 inch mag with #4 shot would do the trick. Full choke barrel of course.

[Mark Blatter]

I had skunk problems about 12 years ago. The first two I shot about 10 p.m. at night, first with a 9 mm and the second with a .38 thinking it would be a little quieter. My neighbor called and asked if I had heard a gun shot the second time so it was likely louder. I lived in the Helena MT valley and my closest neighbor was about quarter mile away. I was shooting towards my barn with plenty of backstop and aiming down towards the ground so never an issue with safety. However after the second one, I borrowed a trap and caught the last one. I had the trap set with a tarp half over it and once I knew I had him, I covered the trap fully with the tarp. I backed my truck up to the tarp covered trap, put a hose from my tailpipe under the tarp. In about 15 mins, I had a peacefully sleeping skunk that took a long nap. Last I heard he still had not woken up. He never sprayed because he never felt threatened. The two I shot sprayed, so trapping is definitely the better way to go.

[John K Jordan]

...put a hose from my tailpipe under the tarp. ...The two I shot sprayed, so trapping is definitely the better way to go.

The exhaust sounds like a good method if you can get the vehicle close to the trap.

But when you said "trap" it reminded me of a different type of trap. I was maybe 11-12 years old when I set a spring-loaded leg trap, banned now in many places. I thought a raccoon was destroying our corn but what I caught was a skunk. I stood well back and sent him to the afterlife with my trusty 22 rifle. As you said, that released a powerful skunk odor. I built a fire and put the trap in it long enough to cremate the skunk but the smell on the trap was still strong. Then I soaked the trap in the river over the Pennsylvania winter and it STILL smelled of skunk so I threw it away. I later realized that trap would probably have been perfect for predators such as coyote since it might help mask any human smell. But you don't always think things through when you're 12.

I always disllked killing things, even skunks. We could all coexist nicely if we could get them to respect some "No Skunks Allowed Past This Point" signs.

JKJ

[James Runchey]

Speaking of Nutria, back in the 60's I was the bookkeeper for the worlds largest mink ranch, and part of he diet mixed daily was Nutria. At the peak season after the kits were born we were feeding 125,000 mink a day and a good part ofthis was nutria. We were mixing 56,000 lbs of feed per day. At that time they were butchering wild horses fo feed also. We also had many semi loads of whale meat come in, as well as slunks [unborn calves from slaughter houses] loved that name, very descriptive. A very interesting job.

[Rollie Meyers]

Neighbor has a palm tree that is home to some coons they come to my house to dine on my cats dry food, started bringing it in at night but does get forgotten from time to time. Coons are cute but have no desire to tangle with one, same applies to bears. BTW, the German word for Raccoon is Waschbär, which translates to Wash Bear.

[Rob Luter]

BTW, the German word for Raccoon is Waschbär, which translates to Wash Bear.

Around here the word Raccoon translates to Trash Panda