A Visit From Conservation Officers

I failed to post about my interesting day back on October 2nd in which I sat on the phone for about 30-minutes with Daryl from the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to discuss my predicament of having a raccoon in a trap in my backyard.

Let me begin by explaining why I had a raccoon in a trap in my backyard...

We had been having problems for awhile with something (?) getting into our small pond almost every night. Finallly I heard the little rascal one night, and knew right away that it was a raccoon. A few days later I talked about it with a customer of mine, and she had her father-in-law bring over a trap (cage) for me to use. I took it home, set it, placed an egg in it as he instructed and waited. And waited - and waited - and waited.

FINALLY - on the morning of October 2nd, we caught our little masked friend. But, then the fun began - not knowing what I should do with him, I called our local Animal Control. Wouldn`t you know, they weren`t available, so I had to call law enforcement. After I talked to them, they directed me to the DNR. When I talked with one person, they said they would take my information and have someone get in touch with me. Someone did, and said they were having someone else get in touch with me.

All the while, our little friend was getting angrier and angrier. Surprisingly I had much more patience than him.

Then Daryl from the DNR called - and to go thru our entire conversation would take a book. So, to discuss it in brief - trapping is illegal; I was considered a poacher for what I had done. CRAP!!!

Well, Daryl took mercy on me (well, I think God had a hand in it, too), and he issued me a "nuisance permit" giving me permission to trap. "THANK YOU JESUS!" No tickets or fines just a lecture. However, I had to agree to keep trapping and when 10-days had passed with not catching anything, or the 30-days expired (whichever came first) I was to return the permit.

Ok, no problem. But, what about this raccoon in my backyard? I couldn`t transport him to the woods and let him go (it was illegal to transport him in my truck and I wasn`t about to open that cage and have him unleash his built up anger against me!). Daryl informed me I had to dispose of him; i.e. Kill him. Of course not owning a gun I didn`t know what to do. Daryl suggested drowning him in a tub of some kind.

After we finished our conversation I found a large Rubbermade tub in the garage, which was just large enough to hold the cage. I began filling the tub and walked over to the cage with a hammer - NO, not to use on the raccoon, but to use the toothed end of the hammer to pick up the cage, keeping my hand a safe distance from his paws that were reaching thru the top of the cage.

I lowered him in, watched him for awhile, but then had to walk to the front of the house to dismiss myself from watching him struggle.

Proper burial per the DNR you might wonder? Double bagged and placed into your garbage can. Sounds easy, but have you ever tried to bag a dead wet raccoon? Not as easy as it sounds. But, mission accomplished.

Now I only had to keep trapping, not catch anything else for a few days, take the cage back to my customer, return the permit and it would all be in the past.

Nothing is ever that easy. No, I didn`t catch anything else, but...

Today, as I was cleaning the basement, Andrew came down and said someone was at the backdoor. I went up, thinking it was probably a neighbor of ours. To my surprise stood two women in uniform - conservation officers from the DNR. CRAP!!!

Apparently, my neighbors (unknown to us which ones) had turned us in for trapping squirrels, rabbits and cats. Ha! I actually started laughing, and started shaking my head. I explained what had happened. They asked to see the permit, which luckily I had very handy inside. They agreed that what I was doing was legal by the permit. I explained how I had disposed of the raccoon, to which they responded that that was part of the complaint - how I had disposed (killed) of the raccoon.

They told me I should have done it in my garage or with a tarp over it. I explained I was just following instructions and just wanted to get it over with. I had forgotten that a neighbor was home working on his roof when this all had occurred and I spoke with him about it while I was trying to figure out what to use to drown the raccoon. (Was this the neighbor who "turned me in?" We will probably never know.)

Anyway, they left pleased that my trapping was legal. I went back into our house wishing I would never have borrowed that trap!! It`s going back to my customer on Tuesday and the permit is getting mailed back on Monday!!