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I got a homeowner with a baby raccoon in his yard and the mother is stuck in a tree. I didn't get a location but I have a phone number. Any takers?

stuck in a tree huh? just a thought but maybe if they pulled the dog off and quit taking pictures she might un stuck herself....

Bob, that's the kind of job I live for. By the time you get there, half the neighborhood is in the yard staring up at the tree. You

grab the baby and make him scream nice and loud and Mrs. Raccoon starts coming down the tree and the crowd starts to scatter. One

more scream and Mrs. Raccoon is headed right for you. You whip out the old landing net, sedate her a little bit, put her in a cage,

and start handing out the business cards. With a little luck, someone with a phone camera recorded the whole thing and you're on the

news at 5!

That raccoon isn't causing any damage. I get off of those phone calls as fast as I can.

I just couldn't believe someone would think a raccoon would be stuck in a tree.

I beg to differ. That raccoon has already damaged the homeowner's mind! On the bright side I'm sure the guys at the fire station had

a good laugh when he called them.

My patience wears thin.

I pull into the drive.
Step out of the truck.
Check out the situation.
I reach back into the truck, pull out the 22.
Roll mama from the tree.
Thump baby in the head.
Toss both into the back of the truck.
Collect my fee and leave.

Not really but I have those days.

I just about p@$$%^ my self.

And David wonders why nobody asks for his business card.

Fixt because

.22lr sounds a bit tame....

^ ha Nice!

What Mr. Jansma said. You can't just shoot it becuz it's there, in Mo. and Illinois. Has to be causing damage.

Yeah, they've got two dumb states side by side. If the skunk is living under your porch, waiting until it sprays your dog or cat is a

little too late, doncha think? And that raccoon family in your defunct chimney isn't doing any damage so leave them there. When the

lawn is all ripped up, how do you know which opossum, skunk, and raccoon did the damage? This is fun; I could go on forever. From now

on I'm going to ask every animal I catch if they ever did any damage before I slap the cuffs on! Dave, I just gotta ask. Do any of

you ADC guys ever get ticketed for catching non-damaging animals?

Had a talk about that very subject with my local wildlife agent. Damage don't have to be, like, a hole in your roof. A skunk digging under your porch is causing damage, IMO. Actually, the precise reason I consulted with her was that some poor soul wanted me to trap a rabbit because it was nesting in his lawn (yeah, that's a job I want to take!). She averred that, strictly speaking, the bunny was causing damage and could be removed.
This makes good sense because in Missouri we don't need a permit, license, badge or letter from your mother to do nuisance trapping. Otherwise, folks would be trapping left and right without a license/out of season because "that fox was a nuisance!"

Appreciate the answer Dave. We need a fur trapping license if we're doing ADC work for money but if it's free we don't need anything

either. I do ask about offenders whenever I see a warden and we don't seem to have a problem with out of season trapping. We do have

have habitual poachers who seem to take great pride in flaunting the law, but thankfully they're few and far between.